The Interference
by Newbie-Spud
Summary: The tale that started it all. A young man wakes up to find himself living through the game Kingdom Hearts II! He has great potential to change the game, but the universe also has the potential to change him in return. In this, a boy learns his potential.
1. The 1st Day

**The Interference**

Chapter 1  
The 1st Day

There was a young boy of the age of 14, sleeping in his own bed, in his own room, in his own apartment. This boy's name was Alexander, called simply Alex by his friends. By all appearances, he wasn't anything special. He had short, dark brown hair, hazel eyes, and looks that could generally be considered "good" if he bothered to keep up his appearance from day to day. But he was not the quickest of risers in the morning.

When the boy realized that he was conscious and awake, he let out a groan. "Ugh..." He was still somewhat half-asleep. Without opening his eyes, he sat up in his bed and flipped the covers off of himself. After giving his eyes a quick rub, he opened them.

And then quickly shut them again with a cry of "Ugh!" There was an alarming amount of light shining into his room through the window! And since his bed was right next to that wide window, he'd gotten the full force of the golden shine. It occurred to him that it was probably sunrise (or sunset, if he'd somehow slept in that long). Groaning, the boy grabbed the covers and quickly buried himself under them as he laid back down. "That's weird..." he mumbled, still half-asleep.

Then a loud sound blared into his room, startling him to full wakefulness. Alex's head jerked back up from his pillow, his eyes beginning to adjust to the light. He sat still for a moment, wondering what the strange sound was. He didn't wait long, because the sound blared again after a few seconds.

Finally, it was recognizable. It was the sound of a train. Rails, horn and all, creating the unmistakable sound of a locomotive. "Now wait a minute!" Alex exclaimed to himself. There were no trains that he knew of that were _that_ close to his apartment...

His curiosity piqued, the boy quickly got onto his knees on the bed, grabbed the window's sash cord, and lifted up the blinds. Alex blinked a little, shielding his eyes as more light flooded in. But what he saw outside was definitely _not_ what he saw from day to day. Not the small parking lot of his apartment complex. Now he was overlooking long stone streets and a large array of buildings, all cast gold by the rays of the sun on the horizon. It painted a very familiar picture.

Too familiar, in fact. Alex did a couple of takes, trying to make sense of what he was seeing. "You're... kidding me," he gasped. What he was seeing was unmistakably part of Twilight Town from the video game Kingdom Hearts II...

Quickly, Alex jumped off his bed and ran out his bedroom door. "Hello!" he called out, looking around the small apartment. "Anyone awake yet?" He checked the living room and dining room, the kitchen, and even his sister's bedroom. But there was no one around. He was all by himself. Utterly alone.

With a scowl, Alexander walked back into the living room, and noticed something that sparked a memory. His family had set up a fairly large entertainment center next to the living room balcony. He could see more buildings in the Twilight Town style out that way. But what drew Alex's eyes, strangely enough, was what _wasn't_ in the room.

In the shelf space under the TV was where he usually put his PlayStation 2. But here, it wasn't around anymore. It had completely disappeared, along with all of his games. Everything else was there, but not the game console. His apartment was now surrounded by a video game environment, but the video game and console it came from were mysteriously absent.

Then he remembered. He had been in the living room earlier that morning, before the sun had come up. On a whim based on mostly boredom, he'd inserted the game Kingdom Hearts II into the console. He'd already beaten the game twice, but he was pretty bored with his other games. Kingdom Hearts never failed to entertain with its gameplay and characters. Alex had started a new game on Standard mode, and then there was a bright flash of light...

Strange thoughts clicked firmly into place. "And _this_ happened!" he declared to himself, surprised. It wasn't the most intuitive leap of logic in the world, but it was also hard to avoid jumping to the conclusion. He shook his head and looked through the wide glass door in the living room, out toward the balcony of the second-story apartment. More of Twilight Town was there. It was real - he could see the contours of the brick and stone. He could see the golden light shining in from outside his windows.

"So... I'm a resident of Twilight Town now?" he asked aloud. "In the Kingdom Hearts universe?"

As ridiculously outrageous this idea was, Alex didn't find it all that hard to grasp. In fact, he rather liked the idea. The Kingdom Hearts series was one of his favorite sets of games. It was more than once he'd imagined being a part of its universe. Being a resident in one of its worlds didn't seem like such a bad thing after all.

Alex grinned, and walked back into his room to start getting dressed for going outside. He had decided to take a walk around the town and look around. Perhaps he could see if there was something he recognized. Also, if this really was part of the game, he needed to see _when_ he was in the game's events - was he starting at the beginning, like the new game he'd started on his PS2?

He was eager to get outside and see the sights, but more real concerns troubled him suddenly. What about food? What about really living here, on his own?

Fortunately, the kitchen had plenty of food Alexander knew how to cook and prepare. Plenty enough to survive for two or three weeks, if he was reasonable about his eating. And he found that his wallet was now holding about 200 munny, the currency of Kingdom Hearts, rather than the 20 US dollars or so that had been in there last night. In fact, it was almost like a cartoon Hammerspace (or as Alex liked to call it, Etherspace, the video game equivalent) in how it held the money - the little golden baubles were almost invisible until Alex went to pull them out. The phenomenon simultaneously boggled and fascinated Alex. But he didn't dwell on it - there was a whole world out there to explore!

Whatever situation Alex had landed in, he was apparently prepared for it on the most basic level. Pocketing the wallet, he made sure he was all ready to go. He had dressed in a simple dark green tee-shirt, blue jeans, and white sneakers. Taking the house keys with him, he opened up the door and walked out into Twilight Town proper.

* * *

Alexander got to the bottom of the steps leading down from his front door, and looked around at where he was. It seemed that he was in the middle of the Tram Common area. That meant that he knew his way around really well from here - after playing it twice over, exploring every inch of the game on two separate occasions, his memory of the game was nearly encyclopedic.

Still, it felt like an adventure to him, being in such a world. And if there was one adventuring rule he'd learned, it was to talk to as many people as possible. Lucky for him, because an opportunity came up straight away.

An old man came walking down the alley, carrying out a garbage can. Alex, looking around intently at his surroundings, hadn't been looking where he was going. The two bumped into each other, and the lid of the garbage can fell down to the ground with a _clang_.

"Ah, sorry!" Alex said quickly, looking toward the old man with a slightly panicked expression.

But the stranger simply smiled and said, "Don't worry. My mistake." The man knelt down and placed the can on the ground to pick up the lid. As he did so, he looked up at Alexander. A look of recognition seemed to cross his face. "Hey, wait..."

Alex gulped. "Yeah?"

The stranger studied Alex's face for a moment, and then said, "You're that new kid that just moved in, right?"

The boy made a sound something like, "Uh?" That had been the last thing he'd been expecting to hear. Just moved in? More like appeared out of nowhere.

Still, he listened as the old man looked up at the apartment and went on: "That apartment hasn't had someone in it for a while. Heard you were the guy to finally move into it. Well, anyway, lemme be the first to welcome you to Twilight Town."

The man extended his hand, and Alex silently grasped and shook it. This was a strange predicament indeed. He definitely knew that he hadn't really moved in, but it seemed that circumstances had been... _set up_ for him so that his presence wouldn't be suspicious. Between the food, the munny, and some stranger in town "recognizing" him... If that was the case, then it seemed to Alex that there was no point in acting otherwise. No point in proving anybody wrong, no point in trying to explain that he was living inside a video game to the game's characters. On that note, this confirmed that these people in this universe had no idea about their existence as game characters. Best not to mention it, then. "Thanks. Uh, nice meeting you."

"Yes, well," the old man said, picking up the garbage can and walking past the boy, "I'd better be on my way. See you later!"

Alex sighed when the old man was out of earshot. Weird was the only word to describe this.

He walked on, reaching the center of the Common. There weren't many people around, but there was one man hanging up posters on a wall to the side. Alex approached the man, and noticed that the posters were advertising the infamous Struggle tournament. Apparently, this was one of the Struggle coordinators.

Noticing his presence, the man turned around and looked at Alexander. "Hello there... Oh, you're the kid that moved in, right?"

Alex sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. What an alibi he'd been forced into! "Uh, yeah. I've been getting quite a bit of that."

"Well, we don't get many outsiders often," the coordinator pointed out, turning back toward the poster he was working on. Then, after a moment, he looked back and said, "That's right! You'd want to meet people your own age, wouldn't you?"

Alexander thought this was rather short-notice, but it worked out. "Yeah, that would be nice," he replied, even though he already knew where such people were. It was best to keep up an act.

The man thought for a while. "Well, there's Seif– No, no, no, you shouldn't go there." Then, his face lighting up with an idea, he continued, "You may want to meet Hayner's gang. They're pretty decent kids. They usually hang out in their usual spot in the back alley. Past a gate and through the rags, it's hard to miss.

"The back alley?" Alexander repeated, starting off toward the Station Heights. That had been exactly what he'd wanted to hear. "Thanks."

* * *

_Hayner, Pence, and Olette,_ Alexander thought to himself as he walked toward the back alley. _And Roxas, if you want to get technical. But only in the **alternate** Twilight Town..._ Of course, that line of thought brought up some more questions. _Was_ he in the alternate Twilight Town, or the real one? Maybe he would find out what was really going on when he got to his destination.

It took a while, mainly because he'd avoided the Sandlot – and Seifer's gang – to get to the back alley. He didn't want to mess with them, or more accurately get messed with _by_ them, just yet. But after a bit of walking, he finally reached the unmistakable Usual Spot and, without thinking, pushed through the red curtain covering up the entrance.

His greeting was immediate. "Hey, what are you doing here?" a gruff young man's voice asked. Alexander looked up to see Hayner himself glaring at him.

The young man was more than a little surprised to see a game character in reality. It was stunning, really. But he managed to keep his cool, backing off by a couple of steps. "Ah, err, nothing," Alex replied, desperately trying to come up with an excuse. "Just seeing what was back here."

"Well, now you know," Hayner shot back, using a tone that made Alex's spine shiver. "This is our spot."

"Hey, you're the kid that moved onto Market Street, right?" a girl's voice asked in a much friendlier tone. Alexander looked toward the source of the voice, and found himself fairly relieved to see that it was obviously Olette.

On the other side of the room, the last of the trio, Pence, got up and looked at Hayner. "Calm down, Hayner, I think he's just looking around." Then he asked Alex, "So, are you the new guy?"

Alex sighed in relief. He wasn't going to get beaten up today. "Yeah."

Olette introduced herself immediately. "I'm Olette. Nice to meet you."

Hayner stepped forward. "I'm Hayner," he said, his tone lighter now. "Sorry for being snappy at you before. I had a bit of stuff on my mind."

"Hey there," Pence greeted Alex, giving him an affirmative nod. "I'm Pence."

"Hayner, Pence, and Olette," Alexander repeated, trying to sound like he was hearing this for the first time. It was difficult; he was really, really excited to be making a positive acquaintance with these three that he recognized from the game. Finally, he got around to introducing himself. "Alright. I'm Alexander. Alex for short."

"Alright, Alex," Hayner said, quick to use the name, "what brings you to our usual spot?"

Alexander shrugged and gave them a sheepish grin. "Ah, nothing really. I'm new in town, so I don't know my way around." A big fat lie. "And beyond that... back in my old neighborhood, there weren't too many people my age living nearby." That was the truth. He met his friends mainly at school, and rarely saw them outside of that.

"So you just wanted to hang out with us?" Hayner concluded. When Alex gave him a hesitant nod, he simply grinned and said, "Well... I suppose we could give you a quick tour of the town."

Alex immediately brightened up at this. "Thanks!"

* * *

As the four teens walked out of the back alley and into the Station Heights, Pence gestured at all of the street. "Well, this is Market Street," he started, leading the way and showing Alex around. "There's an item shop up in this section of the street, along with a weapons shop."

Hayner walked toward a bulletin board posted just a little bit further up the hill. "And this is the bulletin board where people announce positions for odd jobs that they need help with. We come here often when we're strapped for cash."

Olette looked down the hill toward the Tram Common, but simply said, "You already know about the southern end of Market Street, right? You moved into that area, after all."

Alex gave her a nod. Down there was the armor, accessory, and candy shops.

Hayner folded his arms. "There's also the Sandlot, but that's more or less Seifer's territory."

"Seifer?" Alex echoed. He already knew who they were talking about, but he still felt it was necessary to put up an act. It would look suspicious if he knew some of the finer details in advance.

"He's the leader of a four-person group," Olette explained with a sigh, "called the 'Twilight Town Disciplinary Committee.' It sounds like an organization, but it's really just a gang."

"Seifer tries to keep the town up to his own rigorous standards," Pence noted. "He's a pretty tough guy."

Hayner simply looked angry at the mention of Seifer. Noticing this, Alex looked at the other two and replied, "Well, I guess I won't introduce myself to him just yet."

After a moment, Olette turned and started walking down the hill. "You guys go ahead and show him the station. I need to go get something." Without explaining the specifics of her task, she soon disappeared down the hill and went out of sight.

Meanwhile, Hayner and Pence took Alexander up the hill to the top, reaching the clearing just before the train station. A giant clock tower overlooking all of the town was affixed to the station. As Alex was looking up in fear, Hayner said, "Well, I don't think we need to explain this too much. It's a train station. Up there's the clock tower, where we like to hang out at the end of the day."

Pence was the first to notice Alex's uneasy expression. "What's wrong?" he asked, causing Hayner to look back and finally notice the look on Alex's face.

His nerves shot, Alexander replied, "Nothing, just... I've got a thing about _heights_." The clock tower had looked tall in the game, but in real life it looked absolutely gigantic.

Hayner grinned at him. "Aw, c'mon!" he said. "This is our tradition we're talking about. It's our thing. You asked for a tour of the town, and this is one of the stops!"

Alex sighed. There was no way he was getting out of this one.

* * *

After climbing up to the top of the clock tower, all Alexander could say was, "Good grief." It was a fantastic view, there was no doubt. But his activated acrophobia put a severe damper on his sense of wonderment. The other two boys, however, simply walked along the ledge like professionals, taking a seat on the edge above the station's entrance.

Hanging onto the wall of the clock as support, Alexander slowly and hesitantly made his way to the same edge, and took a seat with his feet dangling over the edge like the others. He leaned back a little to make himself a bit more secure, as well as to look more nonchalant like the other guys. But Alex was sure that this whole thing was pushing his luck.

"Hey, guys," Olette called out as she walked onto the ledge, joining the other three boys. "I thought you guys might end up here." Her hands were behind her back.

Looking toward Olette, Pence asked, "What did you get?"

"Oh, just these," Olette replied with mock casualness, bringing her hand out from behind her back. She was holding four bright blue ice creams.

Alexander was surprised. "What's that?" he asked, wanting to keep up appearances.

Everyone else broke out into laughter, amused by Alexander's question. "Geez, Alex," Hayner teased as Olette passed out an ice cream to each of the boys, "how far away did you come from!?" The teasing caused Alex to blush a bit from embarrassment.

"This is sea-salt ice cream," Pence answered after his fit of laughing had stopped. He took a lick of his own ice cream, and the others began eating away as well.

Alexander looked at the ice cream he was now suddenly holding. He wasn't sure what to expect. He took a reluctant taste... Very salty, but in a rather sweet-tasting combination. A strange but rewarding flavor. Actually, it was kind of addicting in a way; it made him want to taste it again. "That's pretty good!" he admitted, taking a small bite out of the bar. Looking toward the others, he decided to start up some conversation by asking, "So, uh... what's been happening lately?"

"Well," Olette replied, her expression thoughtful, "it's the last week of summer vacation."

Hayner groaned. "Aw, don't say that! You'll give me an ulcer."

Pence chuckled. "Not if you explode from all that ice cream first," he joked, and Olette and Alexander laughed at Hayner's expense.

Still, once the joke passed, Olette began giving the other two boys the evil eye. "Anyway, we _still_ have to do our _homework_ before school begins."

Pence and Hayner did their best to avoid Olette's gaze. "Stupid independent study," Hayner grumbled, barely audible to Alexander. Then, looking back at them, he complained, "We've been too busy practicing for the Struggle!"

"The Struggle?" Alexander asked.

Everyone looked at him as if he were stupid. "What kind of question is that?!" Hayner demanded. "Haven't you seen the posters all around town?"

Alex grimaced. He hadn't been expecting that reaction. Maybe playing clueless had to be moderated to a degree. But for now he just had to roll with it. "Well... yeah, but..."

"It's a fighting tournament," Pence explained. "You fight with this special kind of club that they give you, and you battle against an opponent! The goal in each match is to fight for domination of orbs that you're given."

He already knew about this, but it was interesting to hear. Alexander looked at his half-eaten ice cream thoughtfully. He had actually never gotten into a fight before. He'd exchanged a few blows in a few years, but that was long ago - like, way back in middle school or something - and nowhere near something like a battle. Still... "Sounds interesting," Alex remarked. Being able to fight alongside Kingdom Hearts characters would be pretty cool, even if it sounded dangerous and risky.

"Well, it's three days away now," Hayner said.

Alex shrugged. "Maybe I could try, at least..." He looked down at the ground, feeling just a little more comfortable with the height. Then, suddenly, he saw something white move around along the ground below. "What the...!" he exclaimed, jumping a little in his place.

Worried, Pence quickly asked, "What is it?"

The young man looked at Pence, and then looked back down at where the strange thing had been. It was gone. It seemed to have disappeared. "I thought I saw something..." Alexander said, not really sure what to say about what he'd seen. "I guess... it was nothing."

That was another lie. He could've sworn that the strange creature he'd seen... was a Dusk.

* * *

The rest of the day was rather uneventful in comparison - the day went by in a blur. They hung out some more, went back to the Usual Spot to talk a little, and then it was the end of the day. All four teenagers split up, and Alex started heading back toward his apartment.

He climbed the stairs to his front door, fished out his key, and opened up his apartment. His normal instinct to call out crossed his mind, but he then remembered that he was alone in this. He simply sighed, made himself some mac-'n'-cheese for dinner, and got into his pajamas.

Lying down in his bed, Alexander began going over the day's events in his mind. It was really quite interesting, being part of the story here. Hayner, Pence, and Olette really did exist...

Or did they? Now that he was here, what did that mean about the Kingdom Hearts universe? Had the universe always existed, portrayed by the video game? Or had the video game been brought into reality by him, somehow? It was really hard to tell which was the case. This world felt visceral and real in a way the game never portrayed, like this world had been here all along... but he had clearly been brought into this universe by _some_ kind of method. And before it became his reality, it had been part of a video game.

It was too early to say. He had to find an explanation somehow.

Then, of course, there was the Dusk he'd seen earlier. The most common form of the Nobody enemies in the game. It wasn't all that surprising that they would be in this world; Twilight Town was where they were "born," after all. If they were really here in the town, able to cause havoc... then Alex's life could end up in danger at one point or another.

The thought really scared him. Only the Keyblade Master, or those affiliated with the Keyblade Master, could even _damage_ those enemies. Alexander didn't have anything or know anyone like that. And even if he did, his nonexistent battle experience made him an easy target. Unlike Roxas in the game...

"Oh yeah, Roxas," Alexander mumbled to himself as he turned off the light. Sora's Nobody. In the game, Roxas was living in DiZ's alternate Twilight Town, which had been created by copying the entire town into data. The fact that Roxas wasn't here meant that Alex definitely wasn't in that alternate reality. Roxas was having his own adventures with Hayner's gang at the same time Alexander was.

Alexander rolled onto his side. The information about the Struggle tournament had been vital. In the game, Roxas went into that tournament on the fourth day. If it was three days away, then that meant that Roxas had just gone through his first day. So that clearly meant that in five days... Sora, the Keyblade Master, would awaken.


	2. The 2nd Day

Chapter 2  
The 2nd Day

As slow as ever, Alexander rose from his bed once more. He winced again; he still wasn't used to the intense light shining through the window. As his morning amnesia wore off, he remembered where he was. _Kingdom Hearts II. Twilight Town. Hayner, Pence, and Olette. Dusk._

Alex rolled his eyes and landed back down on his pillow. He wasn't the type to rise and shine. He would eventually rise, and the sun would eternally shine. In his book, that met the quota.

A lame metaphor, but it got him through the day.

Quickly going through his morning routine of shower, breakfast, and dressing, Alex tried his best to get over to the usual spot as quickly as possible. After all, he was one of the gang now.

* * *

"Man, doesn't that just tick you _off_!?" Hayner growled, shaking a fist. He got off the couch and started to pace around, muttering angrily to himself.

Pence nodded at him, though he didn't seem nearly as ticked. "Yeah, that's just wrong."

Olette sighed. "Seifer's gone too far this time."

Outside, Alexander was approaching the curtain covering the entrance to the usual spot. He stopped in front of it, listening in on this discussion. Just what was going on here? It seemed somewhat familiar... Intrigued but also concerned, Alex quickly lifted up the curtain and stepped inside.

Hayner and the others gave him a glance. Olette waved and said, "Good morning, Alex," though she didn't seem very pleased at the moment.

Alex looked around at all the unhappy faces. He didn't like seeing his new friends like this. "What's wrong, guys?"

Hayner resumed his pacing. "Stuff's been stolen around town, since yesterday and last night. Not sure what the stuff is, but Seifer's goin' around saying _we're_ the thieves! And now the whole town and their mothers are treating us like the Klepto Club!"

"Seifer says that his 'proof'," Olette cut in, "is that you arrived at around the same time the items began disappearing."

"Now, I don't blame Seifer for thinking it's us," Hayner went on. "We have a score to settle with him and everything. But what **really** bugs me is him going around, telling everyone about his theory!"

Alexander frowned and folded his arms. This was _really_ familiar. In fact, it was almost exactly like the first event in the game! Still, it was best to play it safe and clueless a while longer. "So Seifer is making everyone suspect us."

"Yeah!" Hayner growled, turning around and showing his pissed-off expression to Alexander. "Have you ever been so ticked off in your life!? 'Cause I haven't. Nuh-uh. Never."

Alex paused for a moment in contemplation. "...Klepto Club?"

Olette gave Alex a strange look. "Like 'kleptomaniac?' Someone who steals things?"

The young boy facepalmed. "O-Oh. Right." Wanting to recover, he decided to change topics: "Anyway, okay - what exactly has been stolen?"

"Oh no!" Pence suddenly cried out. Everyone turned to him. The boy had gotten out of his seat and was inspecting his wallet. He dug through the contents searchingly, but to little avail. "They're gone! Our _photos_ are gone!"

Hayner was astonished. "All of our photos, gone?"

The most recent member of the group was the most surprised of all. It _was_ exactly like the first event of the game! Except for one very clear difference... "Photos?" Alex echoed in false disbelief, actually testing the word for himself. "Is that what's been stolen?" Shaking his head, he continued, "Who could steal _photos_ under everyone's nose? And, even before that, who would want everyone's _photos_ anyway?"

"Seifer never could've pulled that off," Hayner agreed, swapping his angry face for a thoughtful one. "None of us could have, either."

Alexander frowned. "Think we should point that out to him? That our stuff's been stolen too?"

Olette stood up. "I'm not sure that's a good idea."

Pence nodded as he put his wallet away. "He... has good reason to think it's us." Hayner scowled and turned away as Pence went on: "Hayner and Seifer got in a fight a while ago, and Vivi... well, took a photo of them when Hayner had been beaten. With that kind of settle to score, it's not hard to believe."

"Well, we're not going to find the real culprit just by standing here," Alex argued. He needed this to move along, but he wasn't going to achieve anything by telling them where to go. He had to make a real argument. "It's worth a shot confronting Seifer. At least we can publicly deny our guilt. What's the worst that could happen?"

That last question was tempting fate, Alex knew, but the three teenagers considered it. Then, after a moment, Hayner shrugged. "Okay, fine. We'll go... talk to him."

* * *

Luckily (or unluckily, depending on who you asked), the sandlot that Seifer's gang hung out in was a very short walk away from the usual spot. They walked down the stairs to the flat area and approached Vivi, Rai, and Fuu, the three other members of Seifer's gang. They seemed to be in some kind of conversation, but Vivi soon pointed them out.

Fuu and Rai quickly turned to face them. "Thieves," Fuu simply stated, being a person of few words.

"That was low, y'know!" Rai added, tagging on his trademark phrase to the end of his sentence as usual.

Alex rolled his eyes, but couldn't help an attempt at a comeback. "Oh yeah?" he said with a grin. "Who really was low?"

A dark chuckle came from one of the alleyways. "Nice try, outsider." Hayner, Olette, Pence, and Alex looked to see Seifer himself emerge from the alley. Alex groaned in spite of himself. He was going to have to work on his comebacks, apparently...

Hayner returned to his pissed-off state. "What'd you say?" he muttered angrily.

"You can give us back the photos now," Seifer said, intentionally ignoring Hayner to annoy him further.

Rai nodded. "You're the only ones who would take it, y'know!" he agreed.

"That was undeniable proof," Seifer declared as he walked toward his so-called Committee, "that we totally _owned_ you lamers! So what did you do? Burn it?" As he finally stood with the rest of the group, he chuckled mockingly once more. "Ha, not that we need some photos to prove that you're losers."

"Replay!" Fuu shouted.

Her meaning was clear; Seifer caught it immediately, and let out a laugh. "Now you're talking!" He got into a fighting stance, and Rai and Fuu did so as well. Vivi walked toward one of the alleys to get out of the way.

In the same moment, Hayner got into a fighting stance as well, and Pence and Olette also assumed wary poses. However, Alexander simply stood where he was, looking worried.

Seifer's grin remained where it was. "I guess," he proposed, "if you get on your knees and beg, **maybe** I'll let it slide."

Alex actually found himself considering that offer. He really didn't want to suck up to such a character; Seifer really didn't deserve that kind of attention. But he couldn't fight like Roxas could; he didn't really know how, and he had no weapon. And he didn't want to see his new friends get beaten.

So he had to swallow his pride. Alexander stepped past Hayner, got onto one knee, and lowered his head. Seeing this, Seifer's gang laughed out loud. In all honesty, they hadn't expected it to happen so quickly.

Hayner was shocked by Alex's display of cowardice. "Alex!" he shouted.

Alexander looked back at Hayner pathetically, then returned his gaze to the ground. But with his head lifted up ever so slightly, he realized that there were three objects nearby that he hadn't noticed before. By turning his head to look back before, the objects had now caught his eye. In fact, Alexander recognized them to be Struggle clubs.

The one on the left was the standard club; a fairly long hilt and a long range with the blue club part of the weapon. The one in the middle had a shorter range, but it had a hand guard. And the one on the right had a hilt that was long and crooked several times over, and the club part was simply a small star.

Alex tensed up. Was he really going to go for it? He'd never really fought before in his life! Then again, was he really going to stay like this, being a coward for Seifer's sake? Fighting wasn't his thing. He was a bookworm at heart, a nerd. 'The pen is mightier than the sword' and all that. There could be another way, perhaps a more diplomatic option. But he couldn't deny that there was an urge, a secret desire to take this conflict into his own hands and show Seifer what for...

He made his decision. In an instant, Alexander was up on his feet and running. He grabbed the middle club, wrapped his hand around the hilt under the guard, and jumped back. As nervous as he'd been to do this, he suddenly found himself a lot calmer now. Alex took an awkward stance with the Struggle club, holding the hilt with both hands and holding it in front of himself, slightly angled outward.

Seifer didn't seem so surprised by this. "So you're going to fight after all?" he asked in his mocking tone. He grabbed the normal Struggle club from the ground, and held it out pointing straight at Alexander.

Everyone else from both groups cleared the lot to watch them fight. From the sidelines, Pence shouted, "Alex, focus!"

Alexander nodded, though he really didn't feel so sure of himself. Well, there was no turning back now. Summoning up his annoyance toward every jock he'd ever known and using that as a substitute for courage, he charged forward with his weapon. He swung it once, landing a glancing blow on Seifer before jumping back once. Feeling more confident, Alex quickly rushed forward again, this time swinging three times. Seifer stepped to the sides with each swing, making sure that the blows landed in non-critical spots. The third strike missed him entirely.

Alex stepped back. This was going to be harder than he'd expected. Seifer wasn't going to just stand around and take the hits. Alex really should've expected this, but he was new to the real battlefield.

Seifer recognized this. He hadn't even been fazed at all by the attacks. Waving his club mockingly in Alex's direction, he said, "Come on... quit playin' around and fight!"

The boy thought for a moment, but then assumed his stance again. Slowly this time, he approached Seifer in a wary fashion, circling him slightly. When Seifer tired of this, he swung at Alexander. Alex blocked the attack with the guard of his club and swatted it away. Seeing the tactic, Seifer retreated a few steps as Alex made his counterattack, making it miss again. However, Alex had the presence of mind to step in afterwards and follow up, landing a solid blow on the left side of Seifer's abdomen.

Seifer winced, and Alexander was quick to follow through. He whacked Seifer's shoulder in the second attack in his combo, and finished by spinning around and ramming the side of his club into Seifer's chest. The bully was thrown back by the blow, but he landed on his feet and regained his stance. His face was no longer teasing; he was serious about the fight now.

Alex, full of himself for actually dealing damage, rushed in to attack once more. As he swung again, Seifer quickly parried the attack upward, making Alex need to reach and lose his balance. In that moment, Seifer spun around and delivered an upward finishing blow. "Come on!"

Unable to block the attack, Alexander was thrown back farther by Seifer's attack. He actually had a split-second of hang time. He tumbled backward, rolling back until he was on his stomach, and his Struggle club clattered to his side. Seifer cackled at the sight of him.

Alexander groaned at the pain he felt, but he managed to ignore it enough to get back onto his feet with his weapon. The adrenaline seemed to be helping him cope with the pain. He gave the situation a moment's consideration, and then rushed forward.

Seifer smirked. Alex seemed to be going with the same tactic again. This time, Seifer launched his finishing strike in advance, aimed to hit Alex at the exact moment he would come into range. However, just before this happened, Alexander crouched down low and launched himself high into the air, higher than he'd expected to reach. Actually, he was jumping pretty darn high all of a sudden.

The physics from Kingdom Hearts' gameplay seemed to be in play. Sora, Roxas, and the others were able to jump this high by default - and apparently Alexander could too now.

He sailed right over Seifer's head, as well as over the attack. Seifer was still following through when Alex landed behind him, so his back was exposed. As soon as Alex was steady on his feet, he attacked Seifer's back three times in quick succession, though they were mostly glancing blows. Seifer growled and turned around to face Alex, but that was when Alex launched his finisher to his combo, striking the older boy in the gut and sending him staggering backward.

Seifer's club dropped out of his hand, and he was forced to fall to one knee. After a moment, he closed his eyes and grunted. "Hmph."

Rai and Fuu quickly ran in to stand between Seifer and Alex. "Seifer's not feeling so hot, y'know!" Rai shouted.

"Tournament decides," Fuu agreed.

Alexander straightened up from his stance, breathing heavily. He started to laugh, cackle even. "Haha, YES! YESSS!" He raised his arms into the air and cried out, "I flipping DID IT!" It could be disputed by Seifer's gang, but there was little doubt that he'd won. Alex marveled at this; he'd won his first battle! Grinning like mad, he turned to face his approaching friends.

Hayner had a grin that could've split his face if it was another inch wider. Olette was applauding. Pence was holding a camera. Before Alex could react, Pence lifted it up and snapped a photo of him with Seifer in the background. There was no flash, but Alex was surprised anyway.

Suddenly, his memory of the events came rushing back to him, his smile disappeared, and he began to worry again. "Wait a minute..." They weren't here to fight, they were here to find the photo thief! And since Pence just took a picture...

A lean, white creature flew at Pence from the side without warning. It snatched the camera, looped around Pence once, and began to escape toward the street at the far end of the sandlot. They all stared in shock for a moment. "What was _that_?" Hayner demanded.

"The thief?" Olette supposed, looking toward Alex.

But Alexander was already running after the creature. Hayner soon was after him, shouting, "Hey, wait up!" Pence quickly followed suit, with Olette taking the rear of the chase.

* * *

At the far end of Market Street, there was a large hole in the high stone wall that formed the town's border on that side. This was the very opening that the creature fled through, and Alexander was giving chase. Alex stopped as they passed through the wall's opening, and looked around at his new surroundings. They were now in a large forest with very little light, in a sparse gathering of trees.

Hayner, Pence, and Olette soon caught up. Alex looked back at them as they approached, looking somewhat confused. Things were going a little differently than they did in the game. Somehow, Roxas had managed to lose the other three at this point in the game. Alex was glad that this particular detail wasn't being true to the game.

The four kids watched as the creature wove between the trees, heading toward a path going up a hill to the far left. Alex recognized the creature, though he'd had little doubt. It was definitely a Dusk.

Hayner recognized the path it was taking. "It's heading for the old mansion!" he shouted, and all four kids went running after it, following its twisting path through the woods, until they finally reached the brighter path leading up to the mansion ahead.

The old mansion was sectioned off by a high stone wall. There was a black metal gate on the front side with a large lock on it. The Dusk, now far ahead of the group, stopped right in front of the gate.

Alexander was the first to reach the clearing, with Hayner and the others a few yards behind him. As soon as Alex was a ways into the clearing, he heard shouting behind him. He looked back and saw that his friends had stopped! They seemed to be pushing against something, but there wasn't anything there! He started running back toward the others.

Then, as he came closer, he saw it. Once every few seconds where one of the three teens made contact, there was a bright flash of several hexagonal crystalline shapes. Alex raised his brow at the sight of it. "What the...?" He whacked his Struggle club against it, but it simply bounced off as it was repelled by the appearance of more of the shapes.

Olette pushed some more, but eventually gave it up. Standing back and looking up at the space where the invisible wall was, she said, "We can't get through! Why not?"

Alex scowled. "It looks like some kind of barrier!" he realized aloud. He didn't say anything else, but he knew that this barrier was exactly like the one that appeared during certain fights in the game. Now that he was here, he wasn't getting out without a fight.

More rules from the game turning up in reality...

Hayner shook his head, giving up on breaking the force field. "Well, it seems like we can't help you out here. You're on your own with the photo thief."

Alexander gulped. He hadn't really wanted to hear that... but, then again, what help could they possibly give him, realistically speaking?

Even so, he would've liked the moral support.

He turned around from his friends and began to approach the Dusk warily. He took step after step toward the Nobody until he was only a yard away, directly in front of it. The Dusk didn't change position, other than to keep swaying in its idle stance. They stared at each other for a few moments...

_**We have come to prevent you from interfering.**_

The young man recoiled from the words flashing through his mind. "Huh!?" he exclaimed, taking a tentative step back from the Dusk. The zipper that created the seam around the Dusk's head zipped across, and the hood lifted slightly with a shake. Alex was clearly able to see the gray sphere forming the inside head of the Dusk, a detail he'd never had the misfortune to notice before.

Alex gripped his Struggle club tightly, but fear gripped his heart. With the glimpse of the Dusk's insides, he'd suddenly forgotten about its existence as simply a video game enemy. It was a real, enigmatic, dangerous creature, and it was going to attack him.

A spike of adrenaline rushed through his body. Alexander cried out, charged at the Dusk, and swung his Struggle club. Moving fluidly and weightlessly through the air, the Dusk easily evaded the attack, and twirled around quickly in an attempt to counter. Alex held up his arms, which took a lashing but kept the rest of his body from taking damage.

The boy swung again, but it missed entirely as the Dusk easily avoided it again. Alexander went into a panicked frenzy, swinging the club as quickly and as rapidly as he could. The Dusk kept on avoiding him, but eventually an attack made contact...

...and phased right through. Alexander jumped back as the Dusk tried to counter once more. "It's... It's no use...!" he mumbled to himself, eyes wide. This thing was just too swift, and his attacks wouldn't do any damage in the first place! Only a Keyblade Master or his friends could take down such a monster, and he wasn't one of those people. His eyes shut tight in fear. He couldn't have a weapon of light...

Alex's right hand suddenly experienced a freezing cold sensation, and he looked down at it. His entire hand, along with the club, had been engulfed by an inky black smoke. "What!?" Alex exclaimed at this phenomenon, shaking his hand a little.

Almost at once, the smoke dissipated. There was something new in his hand. Something like a shield. He could only see the back of it at this angle, so he only saw his hand holding onto a metal handle on the inside of the concave part of the round shield.

Suddenly, the shield moved with a will of its own, dragging his hand along with him. It seemed to be drawn toward the Dusk! Alex fought against the pull and held on with all his might. "Wh-What in the world...!? Augh!" he cried out when he got a scratch on his forearm for his effort. The edge of the shield was remarkably sharp.

As soon as the pain came, the pull ceased. The shield stopped moving of its own accord, and it now settled into his hand.

Alexander was then able to study the front of the shield. In the very center of the weapon was a small, black, hollow keyhole. Surrounding that keyhole he saw the Heartless emblem he'd seen so many times in the game, and this worried him. All of this was in front of a dark green background in the design, and it was encompassed by the silver outside blade that had cut into him before. It wasn't very large; in his hand, the near edge only came close to the inside of his elbow. And it was perfectly round.

But it was a shield. A piece of armor. And therefore a weapon. And the Heartless insignia of the design had to be significant. He looked back up at the Dusk, which seemed to also be intent on the strange shield. Alex looked down at the shield, then at the Dusk... and then assumed a wary fighting stance. He held the shield facing outward in front of himself, and angled his footing. "Maybe this will work," he said quietly. His hopes weren't high, but just barely higher than before.

Holding his shield in a defensive position, Alex slowly circled the Dusk. Then, in mid-step, the Dusk suddenly lashed out at him, rushing toward him. Panicking, Alexander swung the shield wildly with the blade out. The sharp edge caught the Dusk in its head, and made it recoil with the damage.

Alex's jaw dropped. He was actually doing damage! Not wanting to lose this opportunity, he swung the shield a couple more times, slashing at the Dusk again with the blade, and then spinning around and using the shield's face to whack the Nobody away.

The Nobody recoiled, and Alex pumped a fist with glee. "YES! Take that! Haha!"

When the Dusk recovered, it began to hover low to the ground, flying in a loop. Recognizing the pattern, Alex quickly crouched down and jumped up and over the Dusk, right as it reared its head and tried to bash its cranium into the spot where he'd just been. "Nope, not happening!" Alex taunted it.

As Alex landed and faced the Dusk again, he felt a strange feeling beginning to rise up in his body. When he saw the creature, he felt an instinct to take a certain action... Alexander let the instinct take over, and he suddenly moved with remarkable speed. He slid on his feet and revolved around the Dusk, ending up right behind it. The Dusk was stunned, looking around to find where Alex had gone.

Alexander was stunned when he regained control of his body. "W-Woah...!" That was the Reversal technique! The standard Reaction Command for the Dusks... Was that how Reactions worked in reality? What a strange concept... Then it struck the boy that there was a reason for the technique, mainly what it did to his opponent, and he took advantage of the opening. He brought up the strange shield in his hands, and then brought the face of it hurtling down at the Nobody.

The Dusk crumpled under the impact of the shield crashing down on it, and it hit the ground hard. There was a bright explosion of light and strange ghostly essence of some sort, then the Dusk was gone. Small photos floated out of the explosion, drifting through the air before finally landing on the grass below.

The strange cold feeling enveloped his hand again as the black smoke covered the strange shield. After a few moments of this, the smoke disappeared, and Alex saw that the shield had vanished along with it.

Alex saw a bright flash out of the corner of his right eye, and noticed that his friends were running toward him. The barrier had fallen as soon as the Dusk had been defeated.

Hayner looked worried. "You alright, Alex?" Alexander gave him an affirmative nod, breathing too hard for any coherent response.

Pence frowned at the scene, staring at the spot where the creature had disappeared. "What was that all about?" he wondered aloud.

"It looks like that thing," Olette replied, kneeling down and picking up one of the photos, "was the picture thief."

* * *

The four kids came walking through the back alley back to their usual spot. All of the photos had been returned, and their names had been cleared. Fortunately, Seifer had been kind enough to attest to the existence of the thief that had snatched Pence's camera.

Still, the entire experience had left the group of kids with plenty of questions. "What was that thing in white?" was Pence's query.

"What was that weird shield that came up?" Hayner was asking. "And that weird force field?"

Olette was racking her brain for answers as well. "Why did that thing want photos?"

"When did I become an enemy to them?" Alexander wondered aloud just as they reached the curtain to the usual spot. The other three kids paused as Alex continued on inside, giving each other a glance.

Hayner, Pence, and Olette finally followed Alex inside, and Hayner started up the questioning. "It thought you were an enemy? And who's 'them'?"

The boy panicked for a split second. He'd said a little too much. But then he realized: This was an opportunity to set things straight, and prevent more confusion in the future...

Alexander took a seat on a crate in the far corner, and the other kids stood in front of him. "That thing was a creature called a Dusk," he explained. "It's the most common form of the Nobodies. They're... not exactly friendly creatures. More like monsters."

"...Nobodies?" Pence echoed.

"Leftover bodies and souls from those that have lost their hearts," Alex went on. "And not just the organ, but the metaphysical heart. The heart where all our emotions and instincts come from. That heart can be extracted, and the remaining body and soul can become a creature on its own if it's strong-willed. Though they're called Nobodies... because, technically, they don't really exist at all."

The three teens churned through this info. "So, really," Hayner said with a grim face, "it's a freak of nature."

Alex nodded slowly. That was a pretty good way to put it, though he doubted Roxas or Axel would like to be called that.

Olette took a seat on the couch, and Pence placed himself in the chair on the other side of her. Hayner sat up on the golden-colored heater in the center of the back wall. "Sounds like we're up against something way out of our league," he admitted.

"Well, why did that thing want photos?" Olette asked, trying to ignore Hayner's statement.

Pence cut in here. "Maybe it was kinda like what Seifer said. It's only been happening since Alex moved in. Could the thief have been stealing things just to make us suspect him?"

"It sure worked on Seifer," Hayner agreed.

Alexander was surprised at this. He hadn't even considered that. Sure, the Nobody in the alternate Twilight Town had been stealing photos to get at Roxas. But other than what Pence suggested, Alex had no idea as to why the same thing would happen in the real town.

"Well, alright," Hayner said, speaking up once more. "We've got some idea about that. But what about the force field that kept the rest of us out? And that shield that appeared? Any ideas about that?"

At this, Alex was actually at a loss for an explanation. He didn't really know how the barrier worked, for one, other than how it worked in the game. "Well, I'm really not sure about the force field. All I know is that it came up when I entered the clearing, and went down after I beat the Dusk."

"Setting up an arena," Pence said suddenly, drawing the others' attention to him. "I'll betcha it was set up for that to happen. So that you would have to fight that Dusk... to the death!"

Olette glared at Pence. "Don't say stuff like that!"

"I wouldn't be surprised," Alex said quickly, trying to speak in Pence's defense. "I think I heard it speak earlier. Something about preventing me from interfering... Interfering with what, I really can't say."

Hayner nodded. "But their method of 'prevention' would probably be fatal. Gotcha. They are monsters, after all."

A slightly awkward silence fell into the room. Olette glanced over at Alex and said, "So... what about that strange shield?"

Alex sighed and stood up from the crate. "Don't have a clue. It just... kinda came out of nowhere. Just out of the shadows." He shrugged and added, "But it got the job done. All I gotta hope is that it appears again if we run into them again."

"Sounds pretty dicey," Hayner remarked, getting off of the heater. "Looks like you really need to learn to fight, Alex. I mean, seriously! Fighting with a shield? That's seems kinda cruel to put on a newbie."

"Newbie!?" Alex repeated, giving Hayner an incredulous look. It was just the slightest bit insulting, even if it was true.

Hayner rolled his eyes. "Okay, so you beat Seifer. But that only means you at least know what you're doing. Seifer was getting cocky. If you look at your movements, your stance, your attacks... you're clearly a beginner!"

Alex fumed internally. Alright, he was new to this, but he at least deserved some _credit_!

"Sign him up for the Struggle, Hayner!" Pence suggested, standing up. "That'll give him some practice at least."

Olette stood up as well. "That's not a bad idea. And the Struggles aren't just normal battles – there are other goals in each fight. It makes good practice for real battles."

Hayner grinned. "I was just about to suggest that," he said, looking at Alex. "Besides, if his luck pulls him through, we'll have two candidates from our team in the finals. That way, no matter who wins, the four of us split the prize!"

Alexander was surprised by this. His fate was being taken out of his hands! To actually participate in the Struggle!? It was daunting and extremely flattering at the same time.

"I think we broke him," Pence said with a chuckle, referring to his speechlessness.

"Oh, thanks!" Alex muttered sarcastically in reply. This got all of them laughing, even Alex. For once, Alexander felt really comfortable in his new position. He was with game characters he recognized, but they interacted as friends on their own, which was something that Alex had little experience with. Very, very few of his friends would support him through a situation like this, but he was glad that he had Hayner, Pence, and Olette as his new friends.

* * *

"Remember, two days!" Hayner called out as the group parted ways at the Tram Common. Alexander gave him a simple wave goodbye as they all walked out of each other's sight. Soon, Alex found himself back in his own apartment, feeling both good and nervous about the day's events.

After some chicken-flavored Top Ramen for dinner, Alex tucked himself in for the night. He stared at the ceiling for a while as darkness finally fell on Twilight Town. As he went over the whole situation in his mind, he found himself becoming more and more worried.

It seemed that the Nobodies were after him. Why? The Dusk had said something about interfering, but what could Alex really do to them in his current state? Did his mere _presence_ pose a threat to them? Good grief!

Still, there was that strange shield. Since he had been able to damage that Nobody, it seemed the weapon had similar properties to the Keyblade. Except its power was based on the exact opposite of the Keyblade's foundation: Darkness, as opposed to the Keyblade's light. Dark weapons tended to be bad news, so what did that mean for Alex?

And now, of course, Hayner's gang knew the truth about the Nobodies and their involvement. It was way too early for them to really know, it seemed. Heck, they never learned the specifics of it at all through the normal course of the game! If things progressed like this over the next few days, it was likely he might end up explaining the whole _game_ to them!

Alex sighed, not pleased with this train of thought. "Things are definitely not looking up," he muttered aloud, and finally laid down on his side to get some sleep.


	3. The 3rd Day

Chapter 3  
The 3rd Day

_A shield...  
Similar to the Keyblade...  
Yet opposite in alignment...  
With a keyhole instead of being a key..._

Alexander awoke with a start, throwing off his covers and sitting up straight. It wasn't his usual morning routine by a long shot, but he was determined not to lose the thought that had crossed his mind. Blinking a couple of times, he held up his right hand and stared at his palm.

"A Lock...shield?" he mumbled to himself. Could that possibly be what that strange shield was called? The name... sorta fit his observations. That made it the pure opposite of the Keyblade.

But, then again, Alex was reluctant to make assumptions so soon. After all, he'd only had the thing for all of sixty seconds.

Still, it merited investigation. Alex got up, ate breakfast, got dressed, and headed out into Twilight Town once again. Some discussion with his friends might turn up something.

* * *

"Oh, hey Alex!" Pence called out from the sofa, seeing Alexander entering the usual spot. Hayner and Olette were there as well, and they gave him small waves in greeting.

"Hey guys," Alex said as he walked in. He fell silent and took a seat in the chair next to the sofa. The expression on his face was a thoughtful one. He wanted to bring up yesterday's events up, but he didn't know how to go about it.

The other three teens, it turned out, were having the same difficulty. Olette awkwardly tried to create conversation by saying, "So... did you sleep well?"

Alex sighed and shook his head. "Hardly. I could barely stay asleep last night. I was in and out, waking up so many times with some new idea about what in the world is happening here."

Well, there it was. Pence sighed and said, "Yesterday's photo thief really got everyone talking. Some people are kinda scared now."

Hayner growled. "Man, today's turning out to be a drag. Summer vacation's about to end, there are supposedly monsters running about... The Struggle's tomorrow, and we've still got the independent study to do!"

"Why don't we just do the homework today?" Olette asked pointedly. "Get it over with?"

"Naw," Hayner was quick to reply. "Today's forecast is dull as it is." He got off the heater, and began to walk toward the entrance to the usual spot. "So, how about this? We all go to the beach! And why do we go to the beach? Because we haven't gone once this entire vacation!"

Turning to Alex, he said, "Besides, it should be good for you to get away from this Nobody business for a while. C'mon! Blue seas! Blue skies! Let's just get on the train and go!"

But he was met with silence. Alex, after a moment, said, "Actually, Hayner... I was thinking of looking into that Nobody business today. Some recon, or something like that."

"Besides," Pence added, "maybe you forgot, but we're kinda broke."

Hayner shrugged. "Shouldn't be hard. Find some odd jobs on the bulletin, and we'll be rolling in cash in no time!" Looking back at Alex, he said, "You sure you don't want to go?"

Alexander nodded at him. "Sorry. The beach really isn't my thing anyway."

Hayner honestly looked a little bummed out at that. "Aw, man... Alright, if that's what you want to do."

Olette sighed. "Alright, alright. A ticket to the beach costs 900 munny. ...So that makes 2700 munny for the three of us. Are we gonna buy anything while we're there?"

"Let's add another 300 munny each," Hayner replied. "We'll use it to buy pretzels or something."

Alex did the rest of the calculations. "So that's 3600 munny. How much do you guys already have?"

"650 here," Pence replied.  
"800," Olette reported.  
Alex fished out his wallet. "I can give you guys my 200 if you want."

Hayner took the wallet and fished out the munny. "Thanks, Alex. That's a total of 1650, which leaves 1950 left. And divided by three, that's... uh, 650? Yeah, 650 munny for each of us to earn."

Alex double-checked the math in his head. It seemed to be correct. When he looked back at Hayner, the young man was already running out into the alley. "Come to the station with cash in hand!" Hayner shouted as he dashed off.

Olette shook her head. "Well, there's no stopping him now, is there?"

"Aw, c'mon," Pence remarked, beginning to walk out. "Those pretzels are starting to sound good." He and Olette looked back at Alex, and Pence said, "Good luck with the investigation, Alex."

Alexander simply waved at them as they walked out of sight, and smiled until they no longer were able to see his face. Once they were gone, though, he let his usual frown return. He would be in this alone for today. Oh well.

* * *

At least he already knew where his first destination would be. Alexander boarded the tram in the Tram Common and rode it over to the far wall. He got off there and walked toward the hole in the wall on that side. The old mansion on the other side of the woods was an excellent place to begin. It was where all of the suspicious stuff happened, so it was a prime target for investigating Nobody activity.

As soon as he entered the woods, however, Alex felt a chill run through his spine. If the Nobodies were really after him, then what was stopping them from attacking him at any time? Sure enough, he looked ahead and stopped at the sight of a dark portal appearing in the air a few yards away. "Uh-oh," Alex muttered, already not liking his situation. He recognized this kind of spatial anomaly from the game, but seeing it in person was whole new experience, and not a pleasant one at that.

A Dusk floated out of the portal and landed in front of it, facing Alex. Soon another Dusk appeared, and another, and another, and another. The portal closed after a handful of Dusks had arrived, and they began to advance toward him. Alex remained where he was, stricken by fear. He once again had no weapon to fight them with.

One of the Dusks grabbed his wrist with its long arm, but Alex quickly pulled out of its grip and stepped back. "Ah! G-Get away!" he shouted, but this did nothing to deter the advance. He ran back through the opening in the wall, back into the main town.

Alexander looked around at the town, and was surprised to see that there was no one around. Usually there were a couple of random people here and there at this time of day, but there was no one! Alex looked back at the hole in the wall, and saw that the Dusks were in swift pursuit. He bolted forward, running through the Tram Common as quickly as he could.

"Hey, someone! Anyone!" he yelled at the top of his lungs as he ran, with the Dusks only a couple of feet behind him. But no one answered, and Alex was forced to keep running. He ended up reaching the hill of the Station Heights, and the Dusks were still following. Alex kept on running, the slope making his retreat more difficult.

"Hayner! Pence! Olette!" he called out as he ran past the shops and buildings, hoping that someone would answer. They should've been working here or _something_! And yet again, there was no reply. Only the Dusks were with him right now.

Alexander came to the top landing of the slope, ending up at the clearing before the train station. He stopped and rested his hands on his knees, breathing heavily. He was running out of energy. But the Dusks weren't. Hearing them directly behind him, Alex staggered forward and resumed his flight. He looked up at the clock tower, and got a strange idea into his head. The top of the clock tower had only a narrow path, so why would the Nobodies follow him there? Not the best plan, but he was running out of places to run to!

He ran around the train station and found the access into the clock tower, and began to climb. It was a long climb up the stairs, made much more difficult by his necessity for speed, but he made it to the top in one piece. He ran around the back of the clock face and came to the front, coming to a stop just before the ledge.

Alex leaned against the wall and kept breathing heavily. Maybe he'd finally caught a break.

But an eerie sound convinced him otherwise. He looked behind him and saw a Dusk approaching from behind him, almost floating over the narrow ledge. Alex quickly stepped over to the front side, but saw another Dusk approaching from the other end.

He was cornered. Looking back and forth between the two Dusks, he muttered, "You guys never give up, do you?" Alex looked back over his shoulder. He was right at the corner of the ledge, an inch away from toppling over. One wrong step and...

Suddenly, Alex was forced to double over as he was whacked in the gut. "Urgh!" The Dusk in front of him had attacked by whacking its head into his gut. As the Dusk retreated, Alex clutched his stomach and took an involuntary step backward because of the pain.

His foot found no surface. "Woah..." Alex mumbled as he flailed, trying to return his balance back onto the ledge. But he was too far gone. He fell over the edge and began to plummet toward the ground below. **"Aaaaah!"**

_This is the end!_ Alexander thought before his world went black.

* * *

Slowly, feeling began to return to his body. He felt kinda numb. Alex slowly opened his eyes and felt around himself. There was no ground beneath him. Was he still falling? No, there was nothing but darkness around him. It even felt like he was falling through some kind of liquid.

Alex found it a struggle to keep his thoughts straight. He was fatigued and in some pain, so he simply closed his eyes and allowed himself to dive further and further into whatever this strange phenomenon was.

After a few more moments, Alexander could feel himself leveling out and flipping back onto his feet. He forced himself to think straight, and searched with his feet for some kind of ground. He didn't have to search at all; he landed on his feet onto something metallic.

Alex's tired mind demanded what this was, but he couldn't quite grasp it. It felt familiar, but his disorientation clouded his thoughts. Absentmindedly, he took a step forward.

As soon as his foot fell, the darkness was suddenly cut back by an increasing light. A bright blue glow spread forth from his step, and the darkness retreated away in the manifest of a flock of birds. The retreating darkness ended when the bright blue glow had become a large disc in which he was the middle of. Alex looked up and watched the birds fly away and fade into the darkness around him, and looked down onto the circular platform beneath his feet.

His mind soon cleared, and the realization hit him all at once. _This is an Awakening!_ he thought to himself. This was the proving ground for the power of one's heart, and Alex had seen both Sora and Roxas go through this process. What he was standing on right now, if he remembered correctly, was the Station of Serenity. The design of the platform beneath his feet was exactly the same as the one Roxas had seen in his station.

**Your path is set for you.**

Alex glanced back and forth as the hollow voice entered his mind. He realized that he naturally wouldn't find the source of the strange voice, but he was surprised to sense it nonetheless. Alex stood still and listened as the voice continued:

**Value your prized possessions.  
There is no time for being indecisive.  
You must be strong.  
Your journey begins in the dead of night.**

Alexander was a little bit confused by these statements. They sounded remarkably similar to the answers Sora had available during the questions in his first Awakening. He didn't recall them ever being important in the second game, however. Then again, he didn't really have room to question his own Awakening, did he?

**Power sleeps within you.**

Alex looked around, and saw three weapons floating in the air around him, surrounded by pillars of light. One was a sword, another was a shield, and the last was a staff. Alex recognized this, knowing that this next decision would decide his style of abilities. The weapons represented the powers of the warrior, guardian, and mystic, respectively.

**If you give it form...  
...it will give you strength.  
Choose wisely.**

It wasn't even a choice.

He already knew which of the three was important to him. He'd made this decision long ago, back when he'd played the very first Kingdom Hearts game. He walked toward the Dream Shield and plucked it from the pillar of light. It's weight rested in his hands, no longer suspended by mysterious power.

Then, in a moment, it burst into bright light and faded into nothingness. Immediately following that, his hand was covered in a dark aura, and Alex winced as the darkness brought a freezing feeling to his hand. When the darkness faded, the strange shield from the day before was then in his grip.

Alexander looked back and forth, expecting some kind of ambush now that he'd acquired his weapon. But there was nothing. He heard a faint ringing sound, and turned around to see a doorway appear in a flash of light on the far side of the Station of Serenity. Knowing this was his only way onward, Alexander walked toward the door, opened it, and stepped through.

He now found himself on a series of platforms, forming what he recognized as the Station of Calling. Between each of the three pillars along this path he had to follow, there were bridges made of stained glass panels. It was quite a surreal sight.

Movement caught his eye near his shoe. He looked down and saw a black, flat object that began to retreat once he saw it. It looked like a large spider at first. But then it slowly gained a third dimension. Now it was a small, black, large-headed creature with bright yellow eyes and antennae.

Alex flinched when he realized what it was. It was a Shadow Heartless. But it was actually a lot larger than he'd imagined it to be. Understandably, since the camera angles in the game made everything look smaller. In the game, Shadows seemed to only come up to Sora's kneecaps at best.

In reality, these Shadows were much bigger. Big enough that their glowing yellow eyes were level with Alex's waist. Their sharp, dark claws looked that much bigger up close, too.

Alexander took a stance with the shield in his hand, and rushed toward the Shadow. As he did so, two more Shadows crawled along the platform and rose up to meet him.

**Lockshield...**

"Ya!" Alex swung the shield's blade at the middle Shadow in a wide berth, managing to strike all three at once. "Hyaa!" He then spun around and used the face of the shield to bash them, throwing them back to the edge of the platform. When the Shadows recovered, two of them became flat once more while the third remained and charged in. The Shadow swiped its claws at Alex's legs, but Alex brought in his shield to block the attack, and he bashed away the Shadow again in return.

The other two Shadows sneaked up behind Alex, rose up, and clawed at him. Alex winced as his legs got a couple of scratches, and he staggered backward, managing to keep his balance. The third Shadow returned and jumped toward him with claws out, but Alex recovered just in time to slice at the Shadow with the shield's blade. Alex ended up slicing it in half, and the monster dissipated into black smoke.

Alex grinned. He was capable of killing monsters now!

The remaining Heartless leaped up and quickly grabbed onto Alex's back, adding their weight to his and threatening to send him toppling over. Thinking quickly, Alex decided to go ahead and fall... backwards. He landed on his back, squashing the Shadows onto the ground, making them flat and two-dimensional once more. While they scurried around, Alex got back up and ran to the other side of the Station to create some distance between them.

The two Shadows resurfaced, and Alex charged once more. He sliced the two Heartless with horizontal slashes, and then bashed them both away with a finishing blow. The two Heartless faded away into darkness, and Alex was once again alone.

Alex sighed and straightened up, wincing at the pain in his legs. He looked down, but saw that there were no scratch marks on his legs. His jeans were torn slightly, but there weren't any deep cuts like he thought there'd be. Then again, maybe that was how this universe worked, in a way. They didn't show blood in the game, so maybe any damage that would leave physical marks was just converted into overall damage.

Deciding not to dwell on it for now, he stepped onto the path ahead to continue to the next platform. As soon as he got halfway, however, a small white portal appeared on one of the panels, surrounded by strange, crooked gray threads. A Dusk rose up from the portal, which closed beneath it. Alex scowled and ran toward it, and felt the strange instinctive feeling rising up within him again. He let it take over, and he reacted once more, using a Reversal to end up behind the Dusk.

The Nobody crouched and looked around in confusion, while Alex brought up his Lockshield and sliced downward with the shield's blade. The Dusk recoiled, and Alex slashed it once more before bashing it away with the full force of his shield. The Dusk landed lower along the path, and flew into the air as it recovered. Then it flew down low, rotating before lashing out at Alexander with a headbutt. This attack caught Alex in the chest, throwing him back a couple of feet. But he landed without falling over, and he was quick to come back. He used the Reversal technique once more – it was coming naturally to him now – and gave the Dusk one more bashing to destroy it.

Alex straightened up again, his breathing not quite so hard this time. He was beginning to get better at this fighting stuff. Being able to use the Reversal maneuver was crazy enough, but holding his own in close quarters? Downright amazing to the gamer-turned-fighter.

Well, he could hold his own against a few Shadows and Dusks, at least. That was an improvement on the last two days. Perhaps this was how experience and leveling up worked in reality?

The boy walked onward, still carrying the strange shield warily in anticipation of new arrivals. He stepped forward onto the next wide, circular platform and walked toward the middle. Suddenly, two more Dusks appeared and advanced toward him. Alex rushed toward the two Dusks quickly and used Reversal again. Both Nobodies were confused by the swift technique, and were left open again.

Alex grinned at this. They just had no learning curve, did they? He swung the face of his shield at one of the Dusks, bashing it and knocking it into the other Dusk. The two Nobodies became slightly tangled together as they crumpled to the ground. As they rose and tried to sort themselves out, Alex ran toward them and slashed at them a couple of times with his shield's blade. The two Dusks split apart and staggered back into their correct positions. But Alex simply used Reversal again and slashed one of them to oblivion while they were both dazed.

The other Dusk rushed toward him and tried to attack, but Alex brought up his shield to guard the strike. The Dusk rebounded off the shield's face, and Alex sliced at the Nobody in a counterattack. The Dusk was thrown aside, and Alex bashed the shield against the Dusk to finish it off. It exploded into nothingness, and Alex was alone again.

Alexander didn't want to waste much more time. If these fights were going to take so long, he had to begin running. He dashed along toward the bridge to the next platform, attempting to cross it as quickly as he could. But before he neared the next platform, two Shadows rose up in front of him, and Alex noticed two more appearing behind him. He was surrounded on a narrow path. _Brilliant._

He thought for a moment, but knew that he didn't have so much time. The Shadows were already moving toward him. He ran toward the rear pair of Shadows and leaped over them, landing on a lower part of the bridge. Alex faced the Shadows again and smirked. Now he was no longer surrounded, and the Shadows only had the relatively narrow bridge to approach him with. This was a slightly better tactical position.

The two Shadows now in front of him, seeing his new position, readied their claws and leaped into the air. And since they were on higher ground, they managed to get farther into the air than Alex could reach from his position. Alex suddenly realized his mistake. He'd gone for the lower ground! He should've gone for the other side!

Alex lifted up his shield to defend himself as the Shadows came crashing down on him. The two Heartless landed on his shield, and Alex threw away the weapon in a panic. The shield clattered against the wall of the pillar under the platform behind him, and fell away into the darkness below, carrying the two Shadows along with it.

Again, _brilliant_. He'd just thrown away his weapon, and there were still two Shadows left. Alex panicked a little more, stepping back as the Shadows moved forward. Then, suddenly, his right hand was covered in the icy cold darkness again, and the shield suddenly returned to his hands. Just in time too, because the Shadows had gone flat and were attempting a stealthy strike. Alex stepped forward and created some distance between himself and the Heartless, just as the Shadows tried to attack.

Alex took a deep breath and rushed toward the Shadows. He spun around, rotating multiple times with his shield held out. He slashed the Shadows a couple of times, and then bashed them away. Alex stopped spinning just in time to see the Heartless dissipate away.

This was becoming difficult. He was holding his own fine so far, but these were just the basic types of enemies. And he'd panicked and made a mistake when he'd been surrounded. Hayner had been right; he was a novice to the field of battle. He was well-versed in theory thanks to playing these kinds of games so much, but brittle in practice thanks to his inexperience and lack of fitness.

Once again, Alexander dashed up the bridge, toward the final platform. On the other side of the platform there was a doorway not unlike the one he'd passed through before. Alex quickened his pace, determined to get through the door before more enemies arrived.

But as he got to the middle of the platform, his path was cut short. Three Dusks and three Shadows appeared in a circle around him, completely surrounding him from all sides. Alex held up his shield and glanced around nervously. Shadow, Dusk, Shadow, Dusk... There was no advantage or disadvantage to attacking a specific side. He'd just have to find a way through to avoid getting attacked in a pincer strike.

He had no more time to think. All three Shadows leaped into the air with their claws ready, and the Dusks charged with the intent to ram him. Alex, using a last-minute idea... dropped down to lay flat on the ground. The three Dusks impacted each other, and stumbled back in their disorientation.

Alex rolled over and saw the Shadows plummeting down toward him. He held up his shield and gave a quick thrust of the shield's face as the Heartless came close. The thrust knocked back all of the Shadows back into the air, sending them toppling aside. Alex got back up and attacked one of the Shadows quickly, landing three slashes on it and bashing it to make it disappear.

The Dusks finally recovered and renewed their efforts. Alex rushed toward one of them and used the Reversal technique to get behind it. The other two Dusks weren't effected, so Alex was only able to land a single strike on the stunned Dusk before he had to defend himself again. As the other two Dusks went low, Alex leaped over their attack and dodged it, landing behind the Nobodies.

The remaining Heartless went flat and began sneaking around, while the three Dusks attacked Alex again. Alexander responded by swinging his shield's blade at the Dusks. One of the Nobodies dodged it, but the other two were caught by the slash. One of the two Dusks that took the hit disappeared, having already taken a fair bit of damage. Alex followed up on the other one, landing two more strong bashing attacks on it to defeat it.

The two sneaking Heartless rose up again and clawed at Alex's legs, making Alex stagger and fall to one knee. The last Dusk took advantage of this adverse reaction and rammed Alex's back, sending him sprawling to the ground, groaning in pain.

Alexander winced as he tried to get back to his feet. He wasn't in the best of conditions. He could hear a faint ringing sound in his ears, which sounded rather familiar. If he had to make a guess, he'd say he was at critical health.

He looked above himself and saw all three creatures in the air above him, ready to make a simultaneous finishing blow. Alex growled but rolled like a log to the side, letting the monsters land where he'd just been a moment before. He then got onto his knees and weakly swung his shield at them. The Dusk flew up and over his strike, but the Shadows took the full force of it, which was enough to send them toppling over the edge. They'd been near the edge in the first place.

Alex staggered back to his feet and faced the final Dusk. He ran toward it and used Reversal again, ending up behind it once more. He swung a couple of times, using the shield's blade to slice its back. The Dusk exploded into nothingness at last, and Alex was finally done.

The boy fell back onto his posterior, breathing heavy. That faint but noticeable ringing sound in his ears just wouldn't quit, and he ached all over. That battle had really taken its toll on him. Still, knowing that there was no getting out of this, he shakily got back onto his feet and faced the door ahead. The only thing beyond that door was trouble, but he still had no choice. He just had to be careful.

Gritting his teeth, he opened up the door and stepped through. He was now on a single platform. The door disappeared behind him, leaving him stranded on that platform. This was what Alex recognized to be the Station of Awakening. This was where Alex had seen both Sora and Roxas fight boss battles.

Alex sighed and looked around, awaiting his doom. If he was going to fight a boss here, he was certainly doomed. In his condition – and with his level of experience – there was no chance of victory no matter what he fought. But as Alex stepped toward the edge of the platform, he found nothing appearing to fight him. So what was supposed to happen?

Of course, as soon as that thought crossed his mind, a slight rumbling began to shake the Station of Awakening. Alex staggered for a moment, but peered over the edge of the Station. He then flinched back as a large black shape rose over the edge and towered over him. It was a gigantic, pitch-black, humanoid creature with a heart-shaped hole in the middle of its body, and bright yellow eyes. Alex stared wide-eyed as the creature lifted up a fist. This thing was the Darkside Heartless! It was the boss that Sora had fought in his first Awakening!

Alex, fear dominating his thoughts, doubled back and ran toward the other side of the platform. He reached the other edge of the platform, but nearly found himself toppling over the side. There was nowhere to run.

At that moment, the Darkside brought down its fist and punched the platform with great force. The tremors that caused made Alex lose his balance, and he found himself falling over the edge of the platform! He began to fall, and the pillar on which the platform was supported tipped over as the Darkside forced it around. As the pillar tipped, it revealed another large creature that had been waiting in the darkness below. It was a white-armored, vaguely humanoid creature that was holding a gigantic sphere of shining blue energy in its grip.

Alex, as panicked as he was in his descent, couldn't keep himself from scoffing at the appearance of this second monster. That was the Twilight Thorn, the Nobody boss! Why the heck were both the Darkside and the Twilight Thorn at his Station of Awakening?! It wasn't fair! He was going to be killed!

The Twilight Thorn hurled the gigantic orb of energy at Alexander. As it came closer and closer, Alex could begin to feel the heat radiating from the sphere. That was definitely destructive energy. If he was engulfed in that stuff, he wouldn't be coming out of it at all.

Still, wasn't there that reaction that Roxas used to get out of it? In his fear, he wasn't able to notice the reaction building up in his nerves like the Reversal had.

So he tried to do it by himself, based on what he remembered.

He held back the strange shield, and then hurled it at the sphere. His aim was more or less true; it struck through the sphere and impacted the core of it. Right as it was about to touch him, the orb exploded, sending both him and the Twilight Thorn reeling through the empty space.

Alex, unlike Roxas who ended up landing back on the Station, kept on falling and falling into the dark abyss. He hadn't used the technique quickly enough; doing it sooner would've made the explosion send him back up to the Station. Instead, he kept falling and falling...

* * *

"Alex! You here?!" Hayner shouted as he ran up the Station Heights, ending up at the clearing before the train station. He could've sworn that he'd heard shouting in this direction... He was beginning to be worried. If that had been Alex, what was going on?

"Hayner?" he heard a young girl's voice say behind him, and turned to see Pence and Olette running toward him too. Olette looked around and said, "Did you hear the yelling too?"

Pence looked up at the clock tower... and gasped. "Look!" he yelled, pointing up at the top.

Hayner and Olette looked, and also gasped at the sight. They had looked just in time to see Alex tumbling over the ledge! "Alex!" Hayner shouted as the boy fell all the way down.

There was a sickening _smash_ as Alex landed on his back, his body impacting the stone below. The other three teens, once they recovered from the shock, quickly ran over to the boy and investigated.

As Pence and Olette checked his health, Hayner looked back up at the tower again. He was just barely able to see two white flashes, and then there was nothing up there. But he was pretty sure of what had happened. "Nobodies..." he growled.

Pence caught the statement. "You mean Nobodies pushed him off?"

Hayner turned to his friends and knelt down next to Alexander. "Seems like it. I thought it was them when I heard Alex yelling." Looking at Alex's sprawled body, he said, "What's the damage?"

Olette removed two fingers from the base of Alex's neck. "Well, there's a pulse, but it's just barely there. I wouldn't be surprised if he broke some bones in his back on that fall, though..."

"We'll need a Potion to fix this up," Pence reasoned. "A Hi-Potion if we can get one. But those are pretty expensive..."

"That's it!" Hayner exclaimed in reply, standing up quickly. "We can use the munny we earned just now to buy us a Hi-Potion! Pence, Olette, give me what you earned!"

Pence and Olette shared a glance. "But..." Olette said worriedly, "what if the Dusks come back for him?"

"Get him over to his apartment," Hayner ordered firmly, his tone making it clear that there would be no argument. "I don't think the Dusks will bother you guys. Alex should be crippled by this fall, unless _I_ can get him a Potion. If they'll be after anyone, they'll be after me. And I can fight the best out of the four of us."

Olette hesitated again, but Pence started withdrawing the munny from his own wallet. "Okay, Hayner," he said, handing over the munny. "It's all up to you." After a moment, Olette finally consented and gave Hayner her munny as well.

Hayner quickly counted. Just enough for a couple of Hi-Potions. Perfect. "Alright, I'm going!" he said, pocketing the munny. He started running back to the Station Heights, heading for the item shop below.

Pence lifted up Alex, and Olette helped him to carry Alex on his back. The two of them also started for the Station Heights, working to get down to the boy's apartment in the Tram Common.

* * *

Hayner dashed down the hill and reached the bottom landing of the Station Heights. He ran over to the item shop, and was silently thankful that the shop owner was still there. "I need one Hi-Potion!" he shouted as he ran up to the counter.

The shop owner was a little startled, but he shook his head. "Sorry, Hayner, but I'm clean out of those... What with the Struggle comin' up and all..."

"Gah..." Hayner growled. The Struggle was holding up every shop in town. Why today, of all days!? "Okay, can you give me a few Potions then? Like, two or three!? It's an emergency!"

Jumping in surprise, the owner knelt down beneath the counter and dropped an armful of Potions onto the counter. He then shrieked and ducked behind the counter. Seeing this, Hayner turned around to look behind himself. He flinched when he saw three Dusks staring him down!

Hayner looked from one creature to the next. He was in serious trouble. He didn't even have a weapon... "Great..." he said, looking back toward the Potions and then toward the Dusks again. "Just what I needed."

"Hayner!" he heard someone shout, and looked to see Pence a little higher up the hill, carrying Alex with Olette close behind. The Dusks noticed this exclamation and turned toward the three teens, staring at the unconscious Alexander instead.

While they were occupied, Hayner ran across the clearing to the weapons shop. This shop would be busy mass-producing Struggle clubs, but that was just fine. "I need a club, now!" he yelled to the weapons shop owner. The owner nodded and quickly handed over one from the rack next to him.

As the Dusks began walking toward Pence and Olette, Hayner ran between them and assumed a fighting stance. "Hey, Nobodies!" he shouted as he took a ready fighting stance. "It's me you want, not him! He's a goner if you don't take care of me first!"

The announcement seemed to work. The Nobodies focused intently on Hayner, and Pence, Olette, and Alexander slipped by. "Good luck, Hayner!" Pence shouted as they ran down the hill to the Tram Common.

Hayner nodded and faced the Dusks. Two more appeared out of portals to join the other three. Hayner scowled at this; he was going to be vastly outnumbered. This was going to be more difficult than any battle with Seifer had been. He started to sway from side to side, making sure that he was active in the moment of attack.

The first Dusk flew forward and tried to ram into him. Hayner jumped back, and then brought the Struggle club down on the Dusk. But the attack simply phased right through. He followed up and used a strong uppercut strike, but that simply fell through as well.

The Dusks regrouped, and Hayner became frustrated and angry. _Darn it,_ he thought to himself, _I'm trying to protect Alex here! Let me hit!_

Hayner dashed toward the Dusks, feinted forward, and then dodged to the side. The Dusks were a little disoriented by the feint, which gave Hayner enough time to run up to one of them and swing his Struggle club. This time, the attack hit the Dusk, sending it recoiling backward. Hayner was excited by this progress, and used his uppercut strike to send it up into the air. He then spun around and swung the club in a wide berth, sending the Dusks around him away.

As the first Dusk fell, Hayner was there to meet it. He repeated his combo strike again on the Nobody, and the Dusk exploded into nothingness on the second strike. Grinning and relishing the adrenaline rush, Hayner turned toward the remaining Nobodies and resumed his stance. "Ha! How do you like that, you Nobodies!?"

Hayner soon found out that the Dusks weren't very prone to intimidation, because they all began advancing undeterred, ready to strike again. He simply remained where he was until one of them tried to strike with its head. Hayner defended against the strike with his club, so the Dusk's head ended up rebounding off of the weapon.

Getting an idea, Hayner grabbed the long, spindly arm of the Dusk. "Haha, let's dance!" he shouted, beginning to spin around with the Dusk. The Dusk, taken off guard by this tactic, began to flail wildly. In the process, it ended up hitting all of its comrades with random strikes, hitting all of its allies at least once or twice. Once the Dusk was beginning to get a grip in its situation, Hayner changed things up and threw the Dusk down onto the ground. The Dusk rebounded again, and Hayner swung down on the Dusk once more. This finally defeated it.

Hayner, not wasting any time, ran toward another Dusk and used his combo strike, swinging down on the Dusk and then using his uppercut strike. With the damage the Dusk had already taken, this was enough to make it explode into nothingness. Another Dusk rushed in to attack him, but Hayner dashed backward to avoid the strike, and used several quick stabs with the club to bludgeon the Dusk to defeat.

Breathing heavily but still psyched in the battle, Hayner turned on the remaining two Dusks. "Anyone else wanna try me!?" he shouted at the enemies. Suddenly, two white portals appeared beneath the two Nobodies, and the enemies faded into them. When the portals faded, Hayner was more or less alone in the clearing.

Hayner took a deep breath and finally relaxed. That had been tough, but it'd been worth it. He walked back over to the item shop counter, and picked up a couple of Potions. The shop owner was still cowering behind the counter. Hayner rolled his eyes at this, but began running down the hill to the Tram Common after dropping the munny on the counter. There was a reason for this madness, after all.

* * *

Pence and Olette walked into Alexander's bedroom. The house keys had been in Alex's pocket, so they'd been able to get in relatively easily. Pence turned around as they neared the bed and not-so-gracefully dumped Alex onto the bed.

Olette winced as she heard cracking sounds coming from Alex's body. She'd suspected broken bones, but that confirmed it. "Couldn't you have handled that a little more carefully?" she asked, adjusting Alex so that he was lying down properly on the bed.

"Sorry," Pence said sheepishly, but was thankfully cut off by the front door opening again. The two teens looked back to see Hayner walk into the room. He was holding a Struggle club that was resting on his shoulder, and he was carrying two Potions.

"Hayner!" Olette gasped. Hayner looked really tired; that battle with the Dusks must've been rough.

Hayner handed over the Potions to Pence and took a seat next to the desk opposite the bed. "Well, I won that fight," he said, knowing that the other two would've been wondering.

Pence didn't seem too surprised. Holding the Potions, he said, "Should we make him swallow them or should we just break them over him?"

As he dropped his Struggle club on the already cluttered desk, Hayner glanced over at Pence. There was a point to that question. Restorative items could be used in two ways: drinking them or simply breaking them over you. Breaking them was quick - it brought down the restorative aura of the item without any spill. Ingestion usually had a much more potent effect, but it took more time in the field of battle, and it left a horrible taste in the mouth. It was medicine, after all.

"Shove it down his throat," Hayner muttered, leaning back in the chair. "It's only fair, seeing what he put us through."

Pence chuckled a little, but opened up the Potions and poured them into Alex's mouth. The green, sparkling fluid moved through the boy's system, and a bright green aura surrounded him. There was more sickening cracks as bones mended in his body, but soon he was back to full health.

Alex's eyes shot open, and he began coughing hard. He blinked a few times, surprised to be back in his own room. He groaned, feeling sore all over his body. Memories of past hour or so came rushing to him, but left a hole as to how he'd gotten back to his room...

"Hey, that did the trick!" Olette exclaimed. Alex looked over in her direction, and his eyes widened at the sight of her and everyone else in his room.

"What...?" Alex croaked, his voice hoarse and accompanied by his groans of pain. "What happened?"

Hayner's expression became a pissed-off one as he rose from the chair and moved toward Alex. "You fell from the _tower_!" he exclaimed angrily, not at all happy with the day's events.

Pence nodded. "Man, that was a close one!" he said worriedly. "You're lucky we were able to bring you back and get you some healing Potions!"

"I... _**what**_!?" Alexander exclaimed, rising from the bed quickly. He moaned in pain again as the sudden action brought more pain to him, and he fell back down onto the bed. He churned through the memories of the day again, and he slowly nodded. "Yeah, I was–"

Then, a thought suddenly crossed his mind. "Hey, wait!" he said, propping himself up on his elbows to look at his friends. "I thought you all were going to be heading for the beach today!"

Hayner sighed. "That's just it. We were working up the munny for it, but then we heard you shouting after a while."

Olette nodded. "We came running up to the station as soon as we finished up with those jobs, and arrived just in time to see you... get pushed off the edge. ...It was quite a drop, so we brought you back here and got some Potions for you."

Alexander winced as he received unpleasant messages from his taste buds. "Is that why there's a bad taste in my mouth?" he groaned, sticking his tongue out a little bit in disgust.

"Yeah," Hayner said with a slightly sadistic grin. "I thought we might as well make you drink the stuff, instead of just breaking it like an adventurer usually does. For the trouble you caused, it only seemed fair. I had to fight a whole group of Dusks!"

Alex was most surprised by that statement. Hayner actually fought Dusks!? And won, by the looks of it. But... how was that possible? Only people with the Keyblade or affiliated with someone with a Keyblade... Wait, that shield was supposedly related to the Keyblade, right? And Hayner was technically affiliated with him...

"Ugh," Alex said, getting out of the somewhat confusing train of thought. "Not fair... I had to fight a bunch of monsters too, y'know. They cut me off at the woods, and I thought I could lose 'em at the tower..."

The worry and anger in the room quickly changed to intrigue. "Did that weird shield appear again?" Pence asked suddenly.

Alex thought about it. "No... Not while they were chasing me... Not until I dropped from the clock tower..."

The three teens shared a glance, and then looked back at Alex. "What do you mean by that?" Olette asked pointedly. "The shield wasn't there after you'd crashed..."

Alexander winced. He'd slipped and said too much. And unfortunately, Hayner noticed the reaction. The boy approached the bed and shouted, "Alright Alex, what the heck is going on around here!? How do you know about all this stuff? What did you do to get their attention? Something just doesn't add up."

Despite being caught, Alex made an effort to keep up his lie. "W-What are you talking about? That's the first time I've seen 'em..."

"And something else is bugging me!" Hayner added, starting to pace from one side of the room to the other. "You moved here right before this whole thing started. No relatives are here with you, even though this is a two-bedroom apartment. No one knows where you came from, but no one's really bothered by that!"

Olette and Pence looked between Hayner and Alex. Hayner was coming off as a little paranoid, but the increasingly guilty look on Alex's face was giving Hayner's points validity.

Finally, Hayner stopped pacing and rounded on Alex proper. "I think it's high time we got some answers. Where are you from, and what connection do you have to these Nobodies?"

The boy sighed and sat up at last. This was the clincher. There was no escaping the truth now; he'd never hear the end of it until he told the truth, and he couldn't possibly come up with an alibi without it being obviously false - it'd take too much time to come up with another good lie. It was just going to have to come out.

"I'm from a different... world," he said finally. "Well, different universe, really. Where I'm from... there's a video game series called Kingdom Hearts. It's a role-playing game based on the events and people that are here in this world and the other worlds in this universe. The Nobodies... were a type of enemy that the main character faces in the game. The existence of the Nobodies was explained in the game, so I learned it from that."

The other three were surprised by this. This was as far-fetched as far-fetched got. Pence shook his head and said, "Hold it. This game... is based on Twilight Town and other places like it? And all the people in it?" When Alex gave him an affirmative nod, Pence added, "...Are we in that game?"

Hayner and Olette stared at Pence. Was he taking this seriously? But they looked at Alex, who was silently nodded in response to that question. Hayner was incredulous. "So... you already knew about us?" he demanded. "And the town!? You were just... _pretending_ not to know anything?"

Alex flinched again. That was a reaction he'd been somewhat working avoid. "Yeah... Well, not completely. The game's just **based** on the events here. ...When I first appeared in the town, I recognized it, but I didn't really know what was specifically going on."

"Appeared?" Olette echoed. "So you didn't really move in?"

"Nope," Alex replied, shaking his head. "That caught me by surprise. I mean, it looks like the world came up with an alibi for my existence here, so that I wouldn't look completely suspicious living here. This apartment," he added, gesturing at his room, "is exactly how it looks in the real world - my world - except that the rest of my family, the game, and the game's console aren't here at all."

Alexander looked up at the three of them. "And... yes, I did recognize you from the game. You guys are the main characters in this town."

"Characters!?" Hayner repeated incredulously. "We're actual people, y'know!"

"I know, I know!" Alex responded quickly, seeing the angry looks on his friends' faces. "Look, I-I didn't know you guys personally!" He suddenly looked downcast. "I... What I said before, about not having many friends in my neighborhood... That was the truth! I... I wanted to hang out with you guys because, in the reality of it all, I... haven't had people to hang out with before. And I didn't know you guys at all, so it was really a first for me."

Alex hadn't expected to pour out his soul so openly, so genuinely, but there it was. That was how he felt about this whole situation.

The three kids were stunned by this response. They looked at each other, and then back at Alex. Pence sighed, and said, "Hard to believe that all this stuff is just part of a game..."

Hayner smirked. "No, of course not," he said, catching the others by surprise. When he saw the others' confused looks, he said, "Well, if we're not real, then Alex here can't be real either. But since he's here, and he exists in the 'real' world... then we've got to be real now, don't we? We might've been just game characters before, but we're real people now. Right?"

Alexander took a breath of relief. He really liked that idea - it made this whole strange situation a little more sane. "I think so too. I discovered how 'free' you guys are as soon as you took me for that tour. It's not just game script anymore; you guys are your own selves, and no one can really change that." He looked toward the window and added, "But there are still some events that I recognize from the game. The memory thief incident was one of those events. I'll bet that if I try not to change things, it'll go naturally as it does in the game."

Olette nodded at him. "So what else happens in this... game? This story?" she asked, curious now.

"A lot," Alex said with a chuckle. "The first six days here in Twilight Town are only the beginning of the game. Then it moves on to the other worlds."

"So," Pence cut in, "is that weird shield part of this Kingdom Hearts game?"

Hayner nodded. "Yeah, what exactly happened to you after you fell?"

Alex scowled as he tried to find the right words to describe what he'd been through. "Well... I entered this kind of dream state called an Awakening. I recognized it from the game; it was where the main protagonists began to manifest their abilities. I had to focus my own power, apparently, in order to use that shield effectively. I had to fight quite a bit in that Awakening, but I lost overall..."

He sighed. "The Awakening I recognized. The shield... not so much. It's not part of the game. It kinda seems to be unique to me. I don't know where it came from, whether it's from me, or from something else... I never had it before I got here, so..."

"So you're just as much in the dark as we are," Hayner finished for him.

Alex looked sheepishly up at the angry teen. "Y-Yeah... That's about it. That's all I know. ...We cool?"

Hayner shrugged. "I just saved your life, so I think we're cool. But you owe me one."

"No. Argument. Here."

Hayner stretched and looked out the window towards the rest of the town. "You think the Nobodies know about this whole thing?"

Alex visibly paled at that. "Oh gosh. I never thought of that. Maybe..." His eyes went wide, and then he groaned and pressed a hand to the side of his head. All this wondering in his weakened state was giving him a headache.

Hayner took notice. "Either way, the next few days are going to be interesting around here." He turned toward the door and added, "Well, I think it's time we left. You're going to need your rest after today."

Pence and Olette also rose. "Yeah," Pence agreed, "just rest for today. The Potions healed you, but your body still needs time to recover its strength."

Olette followed Pence out of the room. "See you tomorrow, Alex."

Hayner was about to leave, but then he remembered the Struggle club he'd left on the desk. Picking it up, he said, "Yeah, that reminds me! I'm gonna sign you up for the Struggle today."

Alex went wide-eyed again. "Are you serious?" he said in a somewhat resigned tone.

"Yep!" Hayner replied with a grin. "The fighting in that tournament will give you a lot of practice if you're going to be facing more of those Nobodies. And you yourself said that you failed your own 'Awakening.' I'd say you need that practice."

"You just had to go and put it like that," Alex said, rolling his eyes.

"Just telling it like it is," Hayner retorted, walking back towards Alex. "Look, you can at least try, right? At the very least, try to get to the finals of the Struggle. I'll probably meet you there!" Hayner smirked and held up his arm toward Alex. "Don't lose before you fight me tomorrow."

Alex was surprised by this talk. He hesitated for a moment, unsure of what he should do. But, after a moment, he held up his arm and pushed against Hayner's. It was the seal on their agreement. Suddenly feeling a lot more confident, he said, "You're on."

Hayner grinned. "It's a promise."


	4. The 4th Day

Chapter 4  
The 4th Day

Alexander opened his eyes once again the next morning. He'd apparently fallen asleep soon after Hayner and the others had left. Of course, considering what he'd been through yesterday, that was hardly surprising. He slowly sat up in his bed, stretching and yawning. "Ugh, what a day," he grumbled to himself, rubbing an eye.

Alex yawned again and got off his bed, standing up and stretching some more. He was feeling a lot better now. Perhaps those Potions had done the trick after all. He'd need to be in top shape for today anyway, because today...

His train of thought suddenly paused. Worriedly, Alex glanced over at the digital clock on the shelf near his bed. The digits in bright red that were on the clock gave him a message he didn't want at all. "Oh... _crud_!" he exclaimed. It was already well into the morning! And right after promising Hayner to make it to the finals...!

"I'm gonna be late!" he shouted, rushing into his morning routine. He changed his clothes, getting into a red tee-shirt and black jeans, simply grabbed two slices of bread and a glass of milk for his breakfast, and dashed out the door.

After locking the door behind him, Alex looked out into the town. A lot of people were in the Tram Common already. It looked like there were miniature Struggle fights already going on.

"Hey, Alex!" he heard a voice call from the bottom of the stairs, and Alex looked to see Pence down there waiting for him. Olette was with him as well.

"Yo, Pence!" Alex called back, running down the stairs to meet them.

Olette took a sigh a relief at the sight of Alex. "We were just about to get you. The Struggle tournament preliminaries are just about to start, so Hayner and the others are looking for you."

Pence nodded. "Hayner's already started with his preliminary match. He was almost worried that you might not make it."

"Well, I almost didn't," Alex admitted. "But I'm here now, and I'm feeling better. I'm ready to fight in this Struggle."

Olette and Pence smiled at him. "You're gonna clean up!" Pence assured him. Pointing toward the area near the candy shop, where one of the Struggle coordinators was, he said, "Now get out there and bring us back the trophy!"

Alex grinned sheepishly at this encouragement, but soon dashed off in that direction to begin his fight. Pence looked over to Olette and said, "Who're you gonna root for?"

"Both of them, silly," Olette replied automatically.

* * *

A few hours later, the preliminaries were all finished. Everyone gathered in the sandlot, where the finals of the Struggle tournament were taking place. A large square platform had been set up for the arena, and many people had gathered in the area. Some people were even watching from the rooftops of the adjacent buildings.

Finally, a few small fireworks went off, signaling the beginning of the finals. The crowd began to cheer as a large, chubby man stepped onto the platform, with a tiny microphone clipped to his green turtleneck. This was the lead promoter of the Struggle, and the main sponsor. He looked toward the crowd all around him and began his pitch. _"Ladies and gentlemen, Struggle-fiends of Twilight Town!"_ he called out, his voice echoing through the sandlot. _"It's time for summer's most sizzling clash! That's right! Today is the day for the Struggle and title match!"_

The crowd's cheering went up a notch at this announcement, and the leader went on. _"Who will be the one to break through the ranks and take on our champion, Setzer!?"_

Seifer, Fuu, and Rai were on the left side of the platform, and Rai called out in answer, "Seifer, y'know?"

_"And who will leave today,"_ the promoter went on, _"as our new Struggle Champion!?"_

Pence and Olette were on the opposite side, and they responded by shouting, "Hayner! Alex!"

A crowd of fangirls standing at one corner of the arena called out, "**Setzeerrrrr**!" Calls of, "Setzer! Setzer!" echoed through the crowd as the silver-haired champion himself strode onto the arena, with his trenchcoat hanging lazily on his shoulders. The Champion Belt had simply been thrown onto his left shoulder. This was a character that was apparently going for the enigmatic "cool." Which was probably why he had fangirls.

The promoter smiled. _"Yes, the crowd is fired up, so you know what comes next: Let's..."_

**"Struggle!"** the entire crowd finished for him, completely goaded by the opening speech. More fireworks went off in the air above them. The promoter smiled and stepped off the stage, and Setzer moved back to the corner.

One of the younger coordinators, the one that Alex had met on his first day, stepped onto the arena. _"Hey, now!"_ he called out to the crowd, commanding their attention this time. _"It's time to introduce today's combatants! The four bad boys who struggled their way through the preliminaries!"_

He pointed toward Seifer's gang at the edge of the arena on his left. _"Regular finalist and head of the Twilight Disciplinary Committee: Seifer!"_

He then pointed at the corner just adjacent to them, where one small, lone figure was standing. _"Completely out of nowhere – who knew he'd make it so far **this** year? Vivi!"_

The man grinned and pointed toward the other side of the arena. _"An underground favorite and local attitude problem: Hayner! It's his first trip to the finals!"_

He then pointed toward the boy standing just on the other side of Pence and Olette. _"And Struggler number four, a newcomer to Twilight Town who has already made himself known: Alex!"_

Finally, the coordinator addressed the crowd as a whole once more. _"So! Who will win this sweltering summer Struggle!? Who will take home the grand prize?"_ he added, pointing toward the tables in the back of the sandlot, on which a rather special trophy was placed. _"The _summa cum laude_ of Struggle: the Four Crystal Trophy! **And**... a chance to take on our defending champion, Setzer!"_ Setzer held up the Champion Belt at this mention, only to excite the crowd even further.

The coordinator looked at the back tables, where the judges and other coordinators were deep in discussion. _"It won't be long now, folks. I suggest our challengers go over the official Struggle Rules before we begin!"_

Alexander took a deep breath of relief when the announcement ended, meaning that they had a little time before the first match. The preliminaries had been tough but not too tough. Fighting against local boys and girls from the neighborhood turned out to be much, much easier than fighting against deadly Heartless and Nobodies. He was still amazed that he'd made it this far, being the bookworm that he was, but he understood that the last couple of days had strengthened him a bit.

He, Hayner, Vivi, and Seifer walked over to the near side of the platform, where a large chalkboard had been placed, showing the bracket on it. Alex and Hayner were up for the first semifinal.

One of the other younger coordinators walked over to them as they all gathered. "You already know the rules," he admitted, "but a refresher can't hurt. It's easy! You've each got 100 orbs. Attack to take away your opponent's orbs. That's all you have to do. Land a hit and your opponent will drop orbs. But if you're hit, you'll be the one losing orbs, so watch out! Keep collecting orbs. When the match is over, the participant with the most orbs wins!"

Alexander nodded. Of course, the man had forgotten to mention that each match was only a minute long, so work had to be done quickly. Seifer and Vivi left, and Hayner and Alexander remained. The coordinator turned to them and said, "When you two are ready, talk to the tournament promoter. He'll be in the ring."

Hayner nodded silently and stepped onto the ring, waiting for Alex. Alex took another deep breath to calm himself and stepped into the arena as well. It was too bad that Hayner was his first opponent. It would've really been nice if they could've met in the finals.

Once both boys were in the ring, they faced the Struggle promoter. The crowd began to cheer more intensely as the man gave them both Struggle clubs and left the ring. Hayner grasped his and pointed it at Alexander in a menacing fashion, eliciting an "Ooh!" from the crowd.

Alex smirked and stepped back. "As promised," he simply said.

Hayner lost his serious expression and grinned back at Alex. "I can see that. You made it to me without losing. Not bad, Alex." Giving him only a moment to dwell on that, he then added, "But don't let it go to your head. I saw one of your matches; you just blocked and stayed away from your opponent once you got enough orbs. You were barely fast enough."

Alex rolled his eyes. "Am I _ever_ going to look like a fighter to you?" he asked sarcastically.

"I'm just saying," Hayner replied, "that while you're better than two days ago, you've still got a long way to go. ...And don't try any of that retreating stuff with me in this fight. I'm faster than you."

"Ah," Alex said, clipping a small machine to his belt. It was the machine that would generate the orbs he dropped when he got hit. Hayner had one as well. "Couldn't you have just said that in the first place?"

Hayner grinned even wider. "Come on, Alex! I'm just giving you a hard time. Don't be so negative."

Alexander sighed again. "I've had a lot on my mind. I mean, I _did_ kinda ruin your trip to the beach yesterday."

"Oh. Sorry, man," Hayner apologized. Then he shook his head suddenly and said, "Wait, what am I sorry for?"

Alex chuckled and got into a fighting stance. "May the best man-"

"Yeah, yeah." Hayner got into his stance as well.

The Struggle coordinator at the side announced, _"Our first match of today's Struggle tournament will be between Hayner and his friend Alex!"_ Alexander tensed up, itching for the moment to begin.

The coordinator held up a hand. _"Ready?"_ Then, after a suspenseful moment, he brought the hand down quickly. _"**Struggle**!"_

As soon as that signal came, Alexander rushed forward and swung the Struggle club. Hayner anticipated this and caught the attack with his own club, leaning away from the strike. He then ducked down and jumped to the side, using that new position to try an attack. Hayner's club came up in an uppercut, and struck Alex's opened guard. A few blue orbs went flying across the arena.

Alex growled and leaned back as Hayner went for a second swing. He then spun around and whacked Hayner once, sending some red orbs into the air. Alex followed through with his attack, jumping up and striking Hayner three more times with his club in quick succession. Many, many red orbs clattered onto the ground, and the young man was thrown back. Alexander quickly used the small amount of bought time to pick up some of the dropped orbs, and took a defensive stance.

The other boy recovered quickly and glanced from side to side. After a second, Hayner grinned and started running around Alex, picking up some of the orbs that the other had neglected to. Alex stared at this with surprise, which quickly turned to anger as he ran after his friend. Hayner's grin became wider as he turned around to block Alex's incoming strike.

"I thought you said no retreating!" he growled as he and Hayner pushed against each other with their clubs.

"You trusted me?" Hayner was quick to retort, and then quickly stopped pushing to dodge. Alex, carried by his momentum, staggered forward and left himself open. Hayner jabbed once with his club, striking Alex in the gut, and then used an uppercut strike to send Alex flying backward. Alexander landed on the base of his neck, and he got up slowly with a groan. By then, Hayner had collected most of the dropped blue orbs.

Alex paused for a moment, wincing in pain, but charged forward again. He came within range of Hayner, who swung his club as a countermeasure, but he jumped back at the last second. Hayner's attack hit nothing but air, and then he was too far gone. Alexander closed in and bashed Hayner a couple of times with the club, making copious amounts of red orbs drop onto the ring, before spinning around and delivering his finishing blow. Hayner had some hang time before he sprawled onto the ground, losing his grip on his club. Alex quickly ran around to pick up as many orbs as he could.

A whistle sounded off, signaling the end of the one-minute match. The Struggle coordinator stepped into the ring and stood next to Alexander. He grabbed Alex's wrist and held it up in the air. _"And the winner is **Alex**!"_ he declared, sending the crowd into a frenzy. Alex looked at him in shock; he'd actually had the most orbs in the end!? _"It was close,"_ the coordinator continued, _"but not even friendship slowed this kid down. And Hayner put up a great fight, too."_

Alexander, adrenaline still pumping through his system, grinned and waved at the crowd. After a few moments, though, he stopped and looked down at Hayner on the other side of the arena, and walked toward him.

Hayner definitely looked angry as he came back up. "I lost," he growled. "Aww, I can't believe it! Man, to think that I'd fall for a feint like that..." He sighed to himself, but looked up at Alex with a smile. "Looks like I taught you well."

"I had a lot of fun," Alexander said, his grin coming back.

Hayner grinned back at him, but then scowled and turned away. "Yeah, well _I_ didn't, wise guy."

"Hey..." Alex whined, shaking his head. Some things just didn't change. "Hey, c'mon. There's gotta be a way I can make it up to you."

"Nah, it's alright," Hayner said, before chuckling and punching Alex lightly in the arm. Alex winced, but figured that he should've seen it coming. Hayner began walking out of the ring.

He was cut off by Seifer coming into the arena. "Out of the way," Seifer barked.

"You in a rush to lose?" Hayner taunted him as he passed by.

Alexander noticed Seifer's intense gaze, and followed it down to the small blue thing near his shoes. "Gah!" he exclaimed, jumping back from Vivi, who was only inches away from him!

Vivi looked back up at Alexander, and a shiver ran down the young man's spine. "Hehe..." Vivi chuckled evilly, totally contrary to his nature. "Hehehehe..."

* * *

Alexander took a seat on a bench on one side of the arena, next to the rest of his friends. He was more than a little unnerved. There was something strange about Vivi... and yet, totally familiar. But... that didn't make any sense. Why would they do the exact same thing here?

Olette noticed his thoughtful, worried look. "Something wrong, Alex?" she asked. This caught Hayner's and Pence's attention as well.

Alex shook his head, but met Vivi's stare again. "I've got a bad feeling about this match," he explained honestly, choosing not to explain until they saw it for themselves.

Until he saw it for himself, rather. It was probably nothing. Maybe. Possibly.**  
**

Vivi kept on staring over at Alex, unyielding in his gaze until Seifer finally cut him off. "Don't mess with your elders," he muttered. At this, Vivi silently turned to face Seifer. The little creature seemed to be not at all intimidated by Seifer, which was unusual.

_"Whew, just look at those sparks fly!"_ the coordinator remarked from the back of the sandlot. _"I guess Seifer didn't expect to fight one of his own boys!"_ He held up a hand to signal the beginning of the match. _"Ready...?"_

Vivi looked down toward the ground. As soon as the coordinator shouted, _"**Struggle**!"_ Vivi was off, jumping toward Seifer and swinging his club. Seifer jumped back away from the strike, but Vivi was quick to follow up and chase after him.

Hayner glanced down at Alex. "When did Vivi get so tough?" he demanded. Alex simply didn't respond, his eyes intent on the action.

Seifer swung at Vivi, only to be blocked. He was forced to jump back and lean back as Vivi swung twice in quick succession. It looked like they were evenly matched, which was absolutely ludicrous. Vivi was using some impressive acrobatic feats to manage a varied flurry of attacks.

Seifer jumped forward and swung down at Vivi, but the little guy just jumped back again and leaped into the air. The older boy blocked a couple more glancing blows, and the two of them pushed against each other with their clubs. Then, Seifer finally overcame Vivi and swung at him, knocking him back and sending a single, solitary blue orb to the ground. Seifer noticed this orb and dashed toward it. "You're mine!"

Just as he was about to reach it, however, Vivi picked it up, spun around in the air, and swiped at Seifer. There was a small flash of light, and Seifer was thrown high into the air before crashing to the ground. A few yellow orbs were scattered around his body. The young man didn't move; that had finished it.

The crowd was unusually quiet, astounded by this display. Even the announcer was astonished. _"I-I'm not sure what just happened..."_ he muttered. Steadily building up his confidence, he went on and said, _"Um... but... the winner is Vivi!"_ The crowd roared again into applause. _"In a positively blistering comeback!"_

Vivi walked off the stage and settled into his own corner as Seifer was helped up by the rest of his Committee. Alexander stood up from the bench, his suspicions confirmed.

And, it seemed, so was Seifer's. As Seifer stepped off the ring and walked past the group, he muttered to Alex: "That's not Vivi. _Thrash_ 'im." The three of them retreated back to the back alley, where they'd hung out before. They weren't so fond of crowds, it seemed.

Hayner noticed the Struggle promoter walking toward him. The man said, "It looks like Seifer's withdrawn from the Struggle for third place."

"So I'm in third now?" Hayner exclaimed, his face lighting up. "Aw, baby!"

Pence looked over to Alex as the promoter walked away. "That's... not Vivi?" he echoed incredulously.

Alexander looked across the arena toward Vivi, who was continuing to stare at him. "Nope... That's not Vivi at all." Looking toward the back alley again, he added, "Thrash 'im, huh? You got it."

"What?" Olette asked. "What's going on?"

Alexander sighed and sat back down on the bench. The other three teens sat down there with him as he said, "This looks just like an event that I recognize from the game."

"From the..." Hayner looked around and resumed speaking in a hushed tone. "You sure?"

Alex nodded. "In the game, a Dusk posed as Vivi in the Struggle. It was... a different protagonist, but the conditions were exactly the same as they are now." Alex looked toward the blackboard to see Seifer's name get erased off the chalkboard. "Vivi acted much tougher than usual, and he beat Seifer. I saw it in the game, and it's happening here."

"Can... Nobodies do that?" Pence asked. "Disguise themselves as other people?"

"I guess so," Alex muttered. "The Nobodies have failed to get me so far, so it looks like they're taking a more covert approach."

Olette looked around. "If there's a Nobody with this many people nearby... We should warn somebody."Alex held up a hand, still staring at the arena in thought. "No. No, we play along. Don't tip them off that we suspect something. Not yet."

Hayner nodded and glared at the false Vivi on the other side of the arena. "So, what are we gonna do about it?"

"Well, I'm gonna be fighting multiple Dusks soon," Alex replied. "If things work out as I remember them, there'll be a barrier to seal me in the arena when that happens. It'll happen just after the Struggle ends, assuming I win."

Pence looked thoughtful. "So there's only a few seconds after the Struggle ends until the barrier comes up..." He suddenly got an idea. "Hayner, didn't you fight some Dusks yesterday?"

Olette caught Pence's drift. "Yeah, maybe you can get in and help Alex right before the barrier comes up!"

Alexander raised an eyebrow at this, but found himself liking the idea. It certainly broke the normal series of events, and he certainly didn't mind having some help when push came to shove. "If you could get a club at that very moment, then that could work."

Hanyer nodded. "Yeah, let's do it!"

Just around the corner leading to the back alley, Seifer let out a "Hmph" before ascending the stairs.

* * *

"Keep it clean, fellas," the Struggle promoter warned Vivi and Alex as they stood upon the ring. He handed them their Struggle clubs and their orb containers, and then walked off the stage. Vivi immediately walked over to the other side of the arena and stood there waiting. Alex took a deep breath and took his position as well.

_"And now, the match you've been waiting for: Alex vs Vivi!"_ the coordinator shouted into the sandlot, getting the crowd riled up again. Alexander immediately got into a fighting stance, preparing himself for the worst. Vivi simply stood there, waiting for the signal to begin.

Alex gulped. It was really weird how Vivi looked like a Heartless under his hat... Then again, the Heartless were kinda based on the black mages of a certain game, so it made sense...

"Alex, focus!" Hayner shouted from the sidelines. Alex looked up and saw Vivi above him, swinging his club. Alex had completely missed the starting signal. He quickly brought his club up and deflected the blow, but just barely. A single orb of his dropped onto the ground, but Alex was quick to step onto it and pick it up.

Vivi cackled and jumped in place, taunting Alex into an attack. Not one to ignore an invitation like that, Alex rushed in and jabbed toward Vivi with his club. Vivi quickly sidestepped the move and cartwheeled around Alex, revolving around him until he was at Alex's back. Recognizing the tactic, Alex dashed forward as Vivi jumped and spun around, his club seeming larger for a moment.

When Vivi landed, Alex ran toward him and swung in an uppercut, sending Vivi into the air. Alex then jumped up, swung down, up, and then spun to strike Vivi with an aerial combination attack. Vivi sprawled onto the ground, and Alex landed on his feet. Alex quickly ran around to pick up Vivi's red orbs, making sure he stayed in the lead.

Vivi jumped forward and brought his club up. Alex was pretty sure he was out of range of this attack, but the club suddenly swelled to a larger size in Vivi's hands, and crashed down on Alex. Alexander staggered back, dazed by the blow. The club in Vivi's hands went back to its normal size, the whole effect having lasted only a moment and being hardly noticeable at all.

The little guy ran around the arena quickly, picking up a cluster of orbs. Alex ran toward Vivi again, and the mage spun around again. Alex jumped back to get away from the attack, and then closed in. He swung three times and landed his finishing move on Vivi, sending him tumbling backwards. Alex collected a few orbs in that time remaining.

A whistle blew, meaning the end of the Struggle. Alex brandished his club and rushed toward Vivi once more. "Now!" he shouted, bringing his club up to bring the final blow on the impostor. Hayner, from the sidelines, grabbed the club near his bench and ran toward the ring.

And then an intense white flash blinded him for a moment, making him cease his assault and stagger backward. "Wh-What...?" he muttered, completely surprised by the suddenly flash. He hadn't expected it to be like that...

"Alex! You alright?" a voice called from the side. Alex looked to see Hayner there, standing near the edge of the ring. He had made it just in time. Standing right next to Hayner, however, was...

Alex flinched. "Seifer!? Why the heck are you...?"

"Not now," Seifer grunted, resting his own club on his shoulder. "Looks like I'll be able to get my payback after all," he said, then pointed at Vivi. "Look."

Pence gasped and pointed as well. "Look!"

Alexander looked, and immediately regretted it. Vivi had been completely enveloped by a white mist, which billowed out into the air. Then, suddenly, the mist recollected around the spot and dissipated, leaving a Dusk standing in its place.

More Dusks appeared behind Alex, who simply sighed. "Augh, I hate it when I'm right..." he muttered as Hayner and Seifer took positions behind Alex, the three of them standing in a triangular formation. He then cried out as the cold sensation enveloped his weapon again, and the strange shield was there in his hands once more.

The whole crowd was shocked, to say the least. Some of the people, including a few members of the staff, ran away screaming from the monsters that had appeared in the ring. Among those who stayed were Pence and Olette, who tried pushing against the force field that had been the source of the flash. "We can't get in again!" Olette shouted into the ring.

Seifer looked back at Alex, noticing the new shield in his hands. "Where did that thing come from?" he muttered. "And how is a shield going to help us out?"

"It's the only thing that can even hit them," Hayner shot back, a little ticked at Seifer. "The only reason we'll be able to help at all is because we're helping Alex out. Right?"

Alex glanced at Hayner, even more confused. Hayner was right, of course, but... "Something like that... How'd you figure that out?"

"Enough chat," Seifer said suddenly. "They're coming!"

Alexander looked toward one of the Dusks and saw it approaching. "Hya!" he shouted as he swung the shield toward it, the sharp edge of the shield slashing the middle of the Dusk's body. He stepped forward and swung upward to slash it again, and then spun around to bash it with the face of his shield.

Seifer jumped back away from the Dusk he was facing just as it attacked. He then stepped in and swung down on the Dusk, bashing its head with the club. "Come on!" he shouted as he spun around, catching the Nobody with his weapon again and throwing it back.

Hayner stepped aside from his enemy's attack and ran around it. The Dusk looked around in some confusion as Hayner prepared his attack. He brought his club back, tensed up his arm, and then jabbed with as much force as he could. The Dusk went flying into the air, but Hayner slammed it back down onto the ground and made it bounce off the wood.

Alex ran to the Dusk and used the Reversal reaction, ending up behind it. He quickly slashed it a couple more times, and the Nobody exploded into oblivion. Seifer whacked his Nobody a couple more times, making it shatter into nothingness also. However, three more Dusks appeared on the stage and prepared to attack.

"Little help here!" Hayner said as one of the Dusks joined up with the one he was already fighting. He managed to jump over one of the attacks from below, but the other Dusk slashed at him a couple of times as it seemed to walk upside-down in the air. Hayner stumbled to the ground, but Alex ran toward the first Dusk and crushed it with his shield, destroying it.

Seifer jumped high into the air. "Isn't this romantic!" he exclaimed sarcastically as he came down toward the Dusk in midair. He crashed into it with his club first, knocking it out of the air. As the Dusk came down, Seifer spun around and whacked it again, defeating it at last.

As Alex helped Hayner up, he noticed the other two Dusks heading toward them. The most forward one came down low and tried to bash Hayner with his head. Alex brought up his shield and guarded against the attack, making the Dusk's head bounce off the face of his shield. Alexander stepped forward and swung his shield in a wide berth, slashing both Dusks.

Hayner, now recovered enough to fight again, ran past Alexander and followed up with a couple of hits with his Struggle club to one of the Dusks, destroying it. He didn't allow the other Dusk any time at all, yelling, "Fore!" and whacking it toward Seifer. Seifer closed in on the final Dusk and slammed it into the platform with his club, turning it into oblivion.

Alex grinned and held up a hand to Hayner, who grinned back and high-fived him. "That was sweet!" Hayner exclaimed. Seifer simply closed his eyes and smirked.

Alexander looked around at the crowd around them. Some of the ones who'd run away screaming had returned, fascinated by the fantastic fight with the three boys. A few of them, like Pence and Olette, began cheering for them.

But suddenly, the cheering stopped as everyone's gaze turned toward the far side of the ring. Alex and the others looked toward that spot, where a large billowing mass of darkness had suddenly appeared, with gray, jagged, thread-like things rotating around it. A dark portal for the Nobodies, as Alex recalled.

A tall figure in a black, hooded coat stepped out of the portal, which disappeared behind him. Alexander felt a little nervous at the sight of him; the coat was unmistakably familiar. The hood was up, so he couldn't see the face of this stranger, but he had a few guesses as to who it could be.

Seifer also recognized the significance of the stranger's appearance. "It seems we have our ringleader," he stated, brandishing his club.

Hayner scowled at the figure. "So we have _you_ to blame for all those attacks!"

"In a sense," the man replied in a fairly deep, calm voice, which automatically told Alex who this person was. "True, I am in charge of this particular operation." Looking toward the one with the shield, he said, "Not bad, Alexander. Not bad at all."

Alexander took a deep breath and stared at the stranger with a steady gaze. "Nope," he replied. "Not bad for my fourth day in town, huh? Now, what's a member of Organization XIII doing here, attacking people with Dusks?"

"Hmph," the hooded man grunted, sounding a little ticked off at Alex's reply, "the Superior was right. You know too much. And I see you've informed the other residents as well." Shaking his head, he muttered, "...This is becoming complicated..."

"I know too much?" Alexander repeated, raising an eyebrow. In a way, this was actually rather amusing. Smirking, he added, "Well then, how about this? ...Saïx. The Organization's number... 7, was it? The Luna Diviner?"

The man flinched a little, but then took off his hood and shook his head. The man had wild blue hair, and there was an X-shaped scar right between the man's eyes. "You even know my title?" he asked with a hint of confusion.

Alex shrugged. "I recognized your voice, and I made connections. I'm... kinda the type for memorizing these things."

Hayner and Seifer looked between Alexander and Saïx, hardly at all understanding what was taking place here. Hayner scowled at him and shouted, "What do you want?"

Saïx looked at the other two boys, but then back at Alexander. "You seem to know much about us and of the residents of this world, Alexander, but you seem to know very little about yourself."

Alex was taken aback by this. "What?"

"Why you arrived in this universe," Saïx stated as an example. "Why these events you recognize are taking place. Why your presence interferes with what should happen. Why you have obtained that shield in moments of danger. You don't know any of that, do you?"

Alexander looked down at the shield in his hand, studying it with his eyes. The Organization member was right, Alex didn't have a clue what was going on. But did that imply...?

"I **said**," Hayner shouted again, "what do you want!?"

Saïx finally graced the question with a response. "I merely require Alexander to cease his interference and come with me. The Superior has the answers to those questions, but Alex must come with me to receive them."

Seifer looked dubious. "And if he doesn't?"

Saïx said nothing for a moment, but then held out his hand. In a bright flash of light, Saïx's claymore appeared in his hand. Holding it as his side, he said, "My orders are clear. Alexander must come with me... by will or by force."

Alexander scowled and held up the shield. Everything was getting confusing. First Dusks, then the Organization itself, and now threats from one of the higher-ranked members! And in his hand was one of the things that was almost the center of all this trouble... "What's... going... **ON**!?" he shouted, hurling the shield to the ground angrily at the last moment.

A resounding silence fell into the sandlot. Then, in an instant, the shield faded away into darkness where it was on the ground. The same darkness appeared around Alex's hand. Strangely, it didn't feel cold this time around as the shield came to his hand once more.

Saïx stared at the weapon. "The Lockshield," he stated. "Equal and opposite to the Keyblade."

Alex looked down at the weapon in his hands. The Lockshield, huh? So that's what it was called... He'd guessed correctly. Then again, hadn't he heard the name in his Awakening as well...?

"You know," Seifer said after a moment, "that sounds like it's pretty important. ...If it were me, I wouldn't trust it in anyone else's hands. Something that rare, you don't just give it up."

Hayner caught Seifer's subtle hint and stepped toward the Organization member. "If you want to take Alex, you're gonna have to beat all three of us first!"

"I believe that would be the Lockshield wielder's decision," Saïx pointed out.

"They're right," Alexander said suddenly, grabbing everyone's attention. Glaring at the Organization member and getting into a fighting stance, he said, "_You_ asked for it!"

Saïx simply scowled at them and assumed a fighting pose with his claymore. "Force it shall be." He then dashed forward with remarkable speed, bringing the claymore up and swinging it down toward Alex. Hayner and Seifer jumped to the side, but Alex brought up the Lockshield in an attempt to block the strike. The claymore struck the shield, and the two of them struggled against each other. But soon, Saïx's strength began to overpower Alexander's.

"Hah!" Hayner shouted as he swung at Saïx from the side. The Organization member ceased his pushing and leaned back to avoid Hayner's attack, letting Alex stumble forward with his momentum. Saïx then launched a powerful swing of his claymore at the two boys, knocking both of them back.

Seifer came from behind, however, swinging at the man's head. The club glanced off the back of Saïx's head, making him stagger a little bit. Saïx turned around and swung his claymore, but Seifer ducked under it. As the man followed through with his strike, Seifer jabbed him once in the stomach, and then spun around and whacked him hard in the chest. Saïx had a millisecond of hang time as he was thrown back by the attack.

Hayner then used an uppercut strike from the side while he was still recovering. Growling angrily, Saïx thrust his claymore in Hayner's direction, which the boy only just managed to strike. The Organization member then saw Alex rushing in from the side, and he swung his weapon down toward him. Alex stepped to the side, just barely managing to dodge the swing. As the claymore slammed into the ground, Alexander stepped onto the shaft of it and moved toward Saïx. He slashed the man a couple of times with the sharp edge of his shield, and then bashed him backward.

At this point, Seifer was getting ready for another attack, but Saïx recovered just in time. He leaped high into the air and landed on the other side of the arena, glaring at Alexander. The three boys regrouped on the other side, facing Saïx. Hayner stood up straight and said, "So, wanna give up yet?"

A flicker of annoyance crossed the man's features again, but he seemed to calm himself almost immediately. "It is ridiculous to attempt it now. Alexander is the only one I need, and I need him _alive_. But you two aiding in his interference are making that nearly impossible. If I were to cease holding myself back, I would most likely end the life of at least one of you."

Alexander scowled. Saïx had been going easy on them! Then again, he should've known; the leader of the Berserker Nobodies certainly hadn't been going berserk in this fight.

"However," Saïx said, dismissing his claymore, "this meeting has had merit." He held a hand behind himself, and another dark portal appeared. "You have given me a taste of the Lockshield's power, and we certainly appreciate that, Alexander. Consider this hostage our thanks."

Out of the dark portal, an unconscious Vivi came flying out, crashing into Alexander and sending him to the ground with an, "Oof!" While chaos reigned on that side of the arena, Saïx silently stepped into the dark portal.

Hayner noticed this just a moment too late. "Hey, that's not fair!" he shouted, running over to the portal. But the portal dissipated just as he reached it, taking the Organization member along with it.

Seifer pulled Vivi off of Alexander, and the boy began to regain consciousness. Alexander sat up groaning, not at all happy with what had just transpired. The shield in his hand was covered in a dark aura once more, and it disappeared into thin air.

There was a less intense flash all around the ring as the barrier surrounding them disappeared. There was a long silence all throughout the sandlot as everyone tried to make sense of what had just happened.

And then, all at once, the crowd erupted into loud cheering. Everyone who was there was applauding and cheering for the three fighters. It had been the most fantastic battle they were sure to see for a long while. Even the Struggle coordinator managed to grab hold of a microphone and announce, _"That was amazing! Three of our contestants remained to fight against the unknown enemies long after Vivi's impostor was revealed! Ladies and gentlemen, that's a fight people will be talking about for **months**!"_

Vivi shook his head and looked around, seriously confused. "Im...postor?" he mumbled, standing up. "Wha... Where am I? What happened to me?"

"Come on," Seifer muttered, grabbing Vivi's back collar and dragging him aside. Vivi stumbled on the first pull, but then freed himself and followed Seifer to the back alley, out of sight.

Hayner stretched his right arm and grinned at Alex. "Well, that worked out just nicely." Looking around, he said, "I wonder what's going to happen in the tournament now..."

He didn't have to wonder for long. _"As for the Struggle,"_ the coordinator's voice echoed through the sandlot, _"in terms of the match between Alex vs Vivi... the winner is definitely Alex! Congratulations to our new top Struggler!"_ The crowd cheered wildly again, and Alex smiled and waved at the fans.

* * *

"That was amazing!" Pence exclaimed as the tired boys took seats on the bench. "It's gotta be the coolest thing I've ever seen!"

Alex grinned. His head was going to become very large by the end of this, figuratively speaking. "Thanks."

Olette, however, was not so excited. "So... who was that guy? How'd he just appear like that? And what is this 'Organization XIII' you mentioned?" she asked, voicing the question on the other two teens' minds.

Alex took a deep breath, sorting out the answers in his head. "Like I said before, that was Saïx, the seventh member of Organization XIII, a group of humanoid Nobodies. I'm not sure what that dark portal is exactly, but all the members use it..."

"Hold it, back up," Hayner said, cutting him off. "_Humanoid_ Nobodies? You mean, Nobodies that look and talk like real people?"

"Yep," Alex replied, nodding. "There were originally thirteen of them, but some of them were destroyed. That group is the leading power of the Nobodies, and it directs just about all of their coordinated actions. Apparently, the Organization doesn't like my presence here." He sighed. "They're still Nobodies through and through, which means they don't have hearts and feelings. And it seems that their Superior knows why I'm here in the game."

"**Setzeerrrr**!" a bunch of fangirls cried out, preventing Alex from saying anything further. The crowd began to chant, "Setzer! Setzer!" as Setzer himself stepped into the ring, waving to the crowd.

Alexander groaned and hung his head. "Great. Now, to top it all off, I gotta fight one last Struggle, don't I?"

"You gonna be alright?" Pence asked worriedly.

The boy shrugged and stood up from the bench. "Well, I've won a few battles so far today. Winning one more can only help me out."

Olette nodded at him. "Hurry! It's starting!"

Alexander jumped up to the platform and ran over to the Struggle promoter, standing next to Setzer. The crowd's cheering intensified as the promoter gave the two of them their clubs and said, "You two, play fair now. You're at the top of the bracket."

"There's only room for one up here," Setzer remarked. Alex rolled his eyes at this.

The promoter was a little put off, but he smiled at them all the same. "Well," he said with a chuckle, "may the best man win!"

The man started walking off the platform. As soon as he was out of earshot, Setzer turned to Alex and said, "Hey. Rucksack. How about you throw the match for me?"

"Pffft-WHAT?!" Alex sputtered, laughing. "You serious?"

From the sidelines, Hayner shouted, "Alex! Focus!"

In response, the man said, "Let me win, and I'll make it worth your while."

Alexander just laughed at him some more. "Oh, c'mon! It'll be worth my while just to deflate your ego a little. 'Fraid to say I'll be going all out." As he took his stance with the club, he said, "Besides, I've already fought a few battles in a row. What difference will one more make?"

The coordinator unknowingly cut into this conversation, announcing, _"Alex, our underdog hero, versus Setzer, our defending champion! The winner of this match will be the true champion! That's bragging rights for a whole year, folks!"_

Setzer was silent for a moment, staring at Alex. "Surviving a fight," he finally said, "does not always mean you've won it. I suggest you keep that in mind, before you start making mistakes."

The Struggle coordinator raised his hand, preparing to signal the beginning of the match. _"Ready..."_ The crowd was on the edge as they waited for the next declaration. After a couple of intense moments, the coordinator swung his hand and shouted, _"**Struggle**!"_

Both fighters swung at the same time, their clubs glancing off each other's. Alex managed to deflect Setzer's club further than his own, and stepped in for an attack. He swung down on Setzer, whacking him and making him drop a few orbs. He then jabbed at Setzer in the stomach and spun around, throwing Setzer back with a finishing attack. Alexander then dashed around the area, picking up as many red orbs as he could.

Setzer recovered and took a defensive pose. Alex simply rushed in and swung at Setzer. At the last moment, Setzer thrust his club forward, throwing off Alexander's swing. As Alex stumbled, Setzer used an uppercut swing and knocked Alex into the air, shouting, "And _that's_ checkmate!"

Alex groaned as he landed back onto his feet, and dashed away as Setzer swung at him again. He glanced down at the container at his waist, hastily reading the number. He couldn't tell the exact figure, but there were three non-zero digits on the front digital display. So he was still fine for now.

Alexander looked up, and saw Setzer pushing back his hair and taking advantage of his delay. Moving swiftly, Alex rushed in and jabbed toward the man, catching him off guard in the chest. Alex then spun and swatted Setzer away, making more red orbs drop around them, a few of which Alexander managed to pick up.

Setzer brought his club back for a moment, then started a rapid series of jabbing attacks, nearly clearing half of the ring with the move. Alexander barely managed to jump over the strike, one of the thrusts just grazing his calf. The impact, however, was enough to be considered a hit, so a bunch of his own orbs dropped right on top of Setzer. And considering the base strength of the move, he ended up dropping quite a few.

Alex landed once more and turned to face Setzer for another attack, but then a whistle sounded off. The Struggle was over. Setzer looked down at his own container, and his face suddenly lost its passive smirk. "But... I'm not supposed to lose...!" he muttered under his breath.

"Alex! Alex!" the crowd began to chant around him. Alexander smiled and looked back and forth, astounded by this result. He started waving at the raving crowd, immensely proud of himself.

Setzer began walking off the stage, his pride nearly lost. But just as he was about to leave the ring, he turned and pointed at Alex, saying...

"Alex!" Hayner shouted as he, Olette, and Pence ran by Setzer into the arena. Setzer, being cut off from his parting speech, simply sighed and walked away.

"You did it!" Olette cheered.

Pence was grinning still. "That was awesome, Alex!"

The Struggle promoter shooed the other kids off the ring, carrying the Four Crystal Trophy and the Champion Belt. He set down the trophy on the ground at Alex's feet, and held out the Champion Belt to Alexander. Alex placed his hands on the belt, hesitating for a moment. Was this really happening? Was he actually the champion here, or had he been dreaming this whole time?

But then he took the Champion Belt and held it up to the crowd, making them cheer even louder for his success. Cries of, "Alex! Alex!" continued, and Alex eventually lowered the belt and grinned sheepishly.

This was turning out to be the best day ever.

* * *

Later that day, the four friends had ended up back at the top of the clock tower, sitting along the edge. Alexander had set the Four Crystal Trophy beside him, still not trusting the incredible height enough to hold it in his hands. He'd already fallen off once.

Getting an idea, Alex scooted back and picked up the trophy, grabbing one of the spherical colored crystals and popping it off the trophy. It was the yellow crystal. He tossed it over to Olette, who caught it at the last second.

Hayner grabbed the red crystal effortlessly, and Pence fumbled with the green one as it was tossed to him. Alexander then pulled off the blue crystal and set down the trophy beside himself, holding out the crystal in front of himself. The light from the sun shone off the crystal, giving off a rather beautiful light.

A shiver ran up Alex's spine as he did this. Being in that position, holding the crystal out, he felt incredibly like Roxas at that particular moment. Was that truly happening at this very minute? In the alternate Twilight Town, was Roxas sitting in the exact same spot Alex was, holding out the crystal in the exact same manner?

Alex shook these thoughts from his mind and smiled. "As promised," he repeated.

Pence smiled and held out his crystal. "Thanks a ton, Alex!"

Hayner chuckled and held out his own crystal to the sunshine. "One more treasure for us to share."

Olette held out her crystal for a moment, but then reached down to the spot beside her. "I've got a present, too... for all of us." With that, she procured four sea-salt ice creams and handed them out to each of the others.

"Alright!" Alex cheered as he took his own and took a taste. Boy, cold ice cream was exactly what he needed. He starting thinking again, and realized that this was remarkably like his first day here in Twilight Town. He shook his head and said, "Wow, it feels like I've been here for a long time, even though it's only been four days."

"Well, it looks like you're fitting in fine," Olette remarked as she took a taste of her own treat.

Pence laughed. "Heh, you've already gotten used to the Nobodies?" This received only nervous chuckles in return from the others.

"Yeah," Hayner said, "we've been putting that off, haven't we? There's no doubt that they'll come after you, Alex. And next time they'll try to do more than take you away."

Alexander scowled, placing the blue crystal in his pocket. "You think I don't know that?" he asked sarcastically. He looked out toward the town, and more contemplation occurred in his mind. Finally, he said, "I've gotta learn how to control the Lockshield."

Hayner nodded, but looked doubtful. "But how are you going to do that?" he inquired. "It only seems to come up in dangerous situations. The only time you can learn to control it is when you really need it."

Pence thought for a moment, but then said, "Hmm... What about that Awakening thing?"

This caught the others, especially Alex, by surprise. "What?" Alex mumbled.

"Well," Pence mused, "you said you kinda lost in your Awakening, right? Well, what if you tried it again?"

Alex considered it, but he grimaced at a thought. "It's not something you can just call up at will. At least, I don't think so... And..." He facepalmed. "Oh, who am I kidding? Like I know anything about _anything_ anymore."

"Woah, hey..." Pence backpedaled.

"I'm living in a video game?" Alex asked no one in particular. "I have a magical shield now? The Organization and the Nobodies know about me? _I won the Struggle tournament?!_" He looked out to the sunset and let out a sigh. "Whatever I knew about the world four days ago, it doesn't matter now."

"Calm down, for Pete's sake," Hayner grumbled. "You won today. Can't you just enjoy it and relax a little? I can't believe the guy who beat me is such a worrywart."

"Hey, that was a close match!" Alex protested. But he relented. "But yeah, alright. I'll see what I can do." He dared to look down from the great height they were seated over, and looked up again. "NOT taking another dive off the clock tower, though.

Hayner chuckled. "Yeah, 'cuz I'm not going to save your sorry butt again if that happens."

They all had a laugh at this, and silence followed shortly after. Alex stared out to the town, thinking some more. "Well," he mentioned, "I've still got two more days to get it right."

Hayner looked at the ice cream in Alex's hand, which was beginning to drip. "Well, your ice cream only has two more minutes," he reminded the boy.

"Oops," Alex said with a laugh, and took a bite out of the ice cream.

As the sun disappeared over the horizon and the four friends went their respective ways, Alexander came to a realization. This was one heck of a crazy situation, but it could definitely be a lot worse...

He could be doing this alone. He had to thank his lucky stars he wasn't.


	5. The 5th Day

Chapter 5  
The 5th Day

Alexander slumped onto the futon in the living room, munching down some cereal for breakfast that morning. He was fully dressed and cleaned; the only thing missing from his morning ritual was the sustenance, which he was taking care of right now. In a few minutes, he would go to meet up with his friends at the usual spot.

But what would he tell them? They had problems on their hands. Alex needed to find a way back into the Awakening, so that he could gain full control of the Lockshield. If he couldn't do that, he might as well be dead. He'd gotten lucky three times; a fourth lucky break was incredibly unlikely.

The boy rolled his eyes, scooping up the last of the cereal and chewing on it. He leaned back in the futon and looked up at the ceiling, thoughts clouding his mind. Being in the universe of a video game was harder than it looked.

Well, duh.

But it was more difficult than Alex could've possibly imagined without actually living it. He actually had to develop a battle style, as well as a resistance to pain. And he had to deal with fatigue, which was less severe lately... but still frequent enough to be a problem.

His hard work was paying off, though. Alex glanced over to the Four Crystal Trophy sitting on the kitchen counter, and his hand strayed to the bulge of the blue crystal in his pocket. Finally, he drank up the remaining milk in his bowl and placed it in the dishwasher on his way out the door. Talking with his friends would help get things started, he figured.

* * *

Alex walked into the usual spot and immediately found something strange. An awkward silence had taken residence in the back alley spot; only the sounds of the train rattling overhead were heard in there. Hayner and Pence were sitting in their usual spaces, but Olette was standing.

The girl was facing Hayner and Pence with her hands on her hips, not saying a word. Both boys attempted to avoid her gaze, though Pence failed to act quite as aloof as Hayner. As Alex took a seat on the nearest crate, all three teens turned to face him. Olette kept her angry expression as she walked toward him, and she muttered, "Can you help me persuade them, Alex...?"

The remark didn't go unnoticed. "Only three days left of summer vacation," Hayner snapped, "so don't even _mention_ that assignment!"

"But we agreed," Olette evenly replied, turning to face the boys again, "we'd get it finished today."

Hayner scoffed. "C'mon, that was last week! If we'd known that we'd end up facing Nobodies this week, I would've agreed to take care of it sooner!"

Alex flinched at the raised voices. The last thing he needed was conflict between his friends. "Uh, actually, I can help you guys if you want. I'm pretty good with school assignments..." he said, trailing off.

"Thanks for the offer," Pence replied, "but shouldn't you be worrying more about getting to the Awakening?"

Hanyer nodded vigorously. "Yeah, who knows how long it'll be before the Nobodies come back for you!"

"Stop changing the subject!" Olette said pointedly.

Hayner sighed, his expression one of recognition. "Okay, already," he muttered. "...You win. We'll do the homework. Stupid independent study." Looking around, he said, "So, anybody got any bright ideas for a topic?"

Another uneasy silence settled over the group. Alexander, realizing that there wasn't much to push events forward, deciding to drop the subtle hint. "Well... maybe you can look into rumors around town or something. Y'know, some really weird phenomena around here."

"More weird than the Nobodies?" Hayner asked incredulously.

Pence nearly jumped in his seat. "Hey, wait a minute! We could do a report on the Nobodies!" Everyone looked at him with surprised looks, but everyone remained silent as Pence went on. "_Everyone's_ gonna be curious about them after what happened yesterday. And we're pretty much the only ones who have an inside source on them!"

The expression on Hayner's face immediately lit up. "Seriously!?" he shouted, looking excited all of a sudden. As he considered the idea, he quietly added, "And we don't even have to go around and study any more than we already have..." Grinning at Pence, he said, "Pence, you're a genius!"

Olette was also excited, mainly because they were actually getting to work. "Alright! Let's do it!"

"Sounds pretty cool, actually," Alex admitted. "Need any help with it? If I'm your 'inside source' and all that."

Pence shook his head. "No, it's okay. We'll work with what you told us."

Alexander nodded and stood up from his crate. "Well, I think you know enough to make a pretty good report out of it. I'm gonna... go for a walk."

As he started to leave, Hayner asked, "What for?"

"I was up for a lot of the night," Alex replied with a sigh, "trying to figure out how to get the Lockshield. But I find that walking helps me think better. Besides, I don't want to disturb you guys if I actually manage to pull it off."

Pence nodded and said, "Good luck!" Once Alex was gone, he and the others got into the middle of the room. Olette brought out a piece of paper and a pencil.

"Now, how do we want to start this off?" Hayner muttered. "Let's see... 'Everyone who was at the Struggle this year knows about the Nobodies.'"

* * *

Fortunately, Alexander made it to the woods just outside the town wall without much distraction from the townsfolk. A few congratulated him on his victory in the Struggle the day before, but nothing more than that. This was good; Alex needed a secluded spot to be in. One reason was that no one would see him if peculiar acts were required. Yet more importantly, he needed a place where he could talk to himself.

As soon as Alex was a distance away from the wall, he looked at the crown canopy of the trees above him and muttered, "Alright, the Lockshield is the direct equal and opposite of the Keyblade." He'd heard as much from Saïx the day before.

He continued to pace through the woods, traversing every area within the sparse clearing. He stopped to look down the path leading to the old mansion. "Equal implies," he went on, "that is has just as much power as the Keyblade, as well as the same properties. Opposite implies that... it's dark while the Keyblade's light."

The boy shook his head, frustrated with himself, as he continued pacing around the clearing. He wasn't saying anything new. The important thing to consider was the implications. "That means that I have to summon it from the darkness in order to wield it." He came to a stop. "In order to tap into the darkness, I need to learn to control it, right? And the only way to control it is... to let it into my heart."

A chill went down his spine, and Alex leaned against a tree as he thought. Let the darkness into his heart? Willingly? That was risky. True, it was probably the only way to get into his Awakening from here, but that didn't make it much more appealing. Bad examples had been drawn in this video game series; there were antagonists that had opened their hearts to darkness and suffered consequences. Riku was one such example.

"Gah..." Alex groaned, shaking his head vigorously. "How the heck am I supposed to do that?" By now, he figured that welcoming darkness was the only way to acquire this weapon. He didn't like the idea, but he didn't have anything better under the circumstances.

It was worth a shot. He closed his eyes and began to concentrate. _Darkness... Darkness..._ He kept repeating the idea in his mind, concentrating on it. But nothing came to him. Not a single stirring in his heart or anything. Alex opened his eyes again and rolled them, annoyed by how naive this was. "How did Riku pull it off?" he muttered absentmindedly. He thought back to the first game, back to the beginning at Destiny Islands...

_Riku looked up to the gigantic dark sphere above him and Sora, which looked ready to engulf the entire island. "Once we step through," he told his friend, "we might not be able to come back. We may never see our parents again. There is no turning back."_

_He paused, but his determination didn't falter in the slightest. "But this may be our only chance. We can't let fear stop us! I'm not afraid of the darkness!"_

The thought clicked in his mind. "Not afraid of the darkness..." he echoed. That was it. He needed to truly accept the darkness in full. He'd been worried about turning into a Heartless because of this acceptance, but the darkness wouldn't come even near him because of it. He needed to shed all fear of the darkness, and then he could obtain it.

The boy shook his head once more, resting his back against the tree. He never thought he'd ever use Riku as a role model in his life, but it seemed life had a funny way of creating patterns.

Closing his eyes and lifting his head to the sky, he concentrated on darkness and did his best to keep his fears at bay. _Darkness... Darkness... Darkness... Darkness..._

Alexander felt something stir within his heart. He tried to open his eyes, but something was clouding his vision. He couldn't see much except blackness... it was making him very tired... He slumped against the tree and stopped moving, unconscious.

* * *

Once he regained his sense of self, Alex opened his eyes once more. His fatigue had left him, and he was already on his feet. He blinked a few times, his eyes not quite accustomed to the light shining from the floor beneath him...

Alex did a take once his vision had cleared. It was the Station of Awakening! Like before, there was nothing but darkness all around him, and he was alone on the platform of stained glass.

He heard something to his right, and took an involuntary step back as the Twilight Thorn rose up from the side of the platform, towering over him and the Station. Alexander almost turned back to run, but he saw a dark figure out of the corner of his eye as he did so. The Darkside was already there, waiting opposite to the Twilight Thorn. They were ready to start this battle one more time.

**Don't let fear stop you.**

Alexander held out his right hand and concentrated. He felt another stirring in his heart, and felt his hand covered in a dark aura once again. It didn't feel cold this time. When the aura dissipated, the Lockshield was in his grip. He looked between the Twilight Thorn and Darkside, determined not to lose this time.

**Don't stop walking...**

There was a bright flash, and Alexander suddenly found his upper body encased in a bright aura, almost bound by the gray, jagged, characteristic threads of the Nobodies (which Alex was beginning to call Nothing Threads, for lack of a better name). After a few seconds, the light built up around him until it completely obscured his vision. He felt jerked around in a moment.

The next thing he saw, he was high above the Station. He was suspended by smaller auras at his hands and feet, keeping him spread out. Not only that, but Alex was now face to face with the Twilight Thorn.

**You hold one of the mightiest weapons of all.**

Alex felt a cold chill behind him as a huge dark aura took place at his back. No doubt the Darkside had its face near him in a studying pose, not unlike what the Twilight Thorn was doing. Alexander struggled against his bonds, managing to move just slightly. But he noticed that the Twilight Thorn was bringing one of its hands back for a strike, and he panicked.

As the Twilight Thorn threw its punch, Alex felt a reaction in his nerves and let it take over. He suddenly pulled himself up high, just enough so that the Nobody boss's punch missed entirely. It did, however, strike the unsuspecting Darkside with full force. The Heartless boss recoiled backward toward the edge of the Station of Awakening, and Alex quickly spun around in midair to whack the Twilight Thorn across its face.

The Nobody spun around a bit but righted itself just outside of the Station's edge. Its arms stretched forward and suddenly grabbed Alexander tightly, making him gasp in pain. His bonds broke, and the Twilight Thorn pulled itself forward until its arms were at the right proportion. It then launched Alex high into the air, sending him tumbling up and then down toward the Nobody, which was attempting a midair attack.

Alexander felt another reaction take over, and he managed to recover and maneuver slightly so that the Twilight Thorn missed again. He then flipped forward and bashed the Nobody down toward the Station as he fell toward it. The Twilight Thorn crashed into the Station and slid off the edge, and Alex barely managed to land on his feet. After stumbling a bit, he paused to catch his breath. To him, it was amazing that he'd made it this far!

A rumbling in the floor sent him off his feet and out of his reverie. He looked back and saw that the Darkside had punched into the Station, creating a black abysmal pool of darkness from which Shadow Heartless were creeping out. But Alex recognized the strategy here and ran toward the Darkside, passing all of the small Heartless.

Alex jumped onto the Darkside's arm and managed to run up to the face without slipping off. He swung his shield's edge at the Darkside's face a couple of times, slashing it and dealing more damage than if he'd just gone for the hands.

In reaction, the Darkside quickly lifted its arm up and flung Alex a distance into the air. Alexander began to fall behind the Darkside, but he was able to grab one of the flowing locks from the Darkside's head. The Heartless shook its head vigorously in an attempt to shake him off, but it only made Alex flail around until he was hanging right in front of the Darkside's face. The boy grinned and bashed the face of his shield against the monster's face.

At last, the Darkside whacked him away, and Alex tumbled to the floor in a heap. He tried his best to deal with the pain, but there were three Shadows nearby that were giving him little time. Growling, he rose up and slashed wildly at them, taking two of them out before they could attack. The third leaped up at him, sending Alex to the floor as he tried to guard against it. After suffering a slash from the Shadow's claw for his effort, he rolled back and hurled the Shadow up into the air, sending it plummeting over the edge.

Just as Alex managed to get his footing back, the Station began to tip to the side. Alexander tumbled a bit, but had the sense to stab his shield's edge into the Station just at the edge. Hanging from the edge like that, Alex was able to see the Twilight Thorn holding that accursed large energy orb like before.

_Not again..._ was Alex's thought before one more shake threw him off, sending him plummeting toward the Nobody. At the same time, the Twilight Thorn hurled the energy orb at him. A few intense moments went by as Alex fell, waiting for the reaction to rise up in his system...

All of a sudden, Alex recovered in midair and hurled his shield at the orb of energy. The projectile was aimed true; it hit the orb in the dead center, closer to the Twilight Thorn than to Alexander. The energy exploded, sending both of them flying through the void.

The Twilight Thorn crashed onto the Station, followed by the Lockshield, and Alex close behind it. He fell with a sickening _thud_ that made his whole body ache. Slowly, he got back up and pulled his Lockshield out of the Station floor. With any luck, they'd be almost done soon...

Alex felt a sudden foreshadowing, and looked behind him to see the Darkside bringing down a fist. The boy quickly dodged to the side, letting the Dusk impact the spot where he'd just been. That is, the Darkside smashed right into the Twilight Thorn's head.

As soon as the hit landed, there was an explosion of dark energy. A black and blue aura spread out from the point of impact with amazing speed, engulfing everything in its path. Alex fell back to his rear in the initial explosion, and found himself at the edge as the dark sphere expanded toward him.

**And don't forget...**

Alexander braced himself as the dark sphere engulfed him as well, covering him in complete darkness. He saw, felt, and heard nothing else from that moment on.

**You are the one who must show the path to the door.**

* * *

Vivi slowly walked over to Alexander's still form. He was laying face down on the ground with his eyes closed, right next to a tree. The young boy was somewhat curious but also kinda worried. Why would Alex be here like this? Vivi himself walked around this forest sometimes when Seifer and the others were too busy to pay him any attention. But why would Alex do so?

Did he need some help? Had he been knocked out? Vivi hadn't told anyone, but he _did_ know a couple of magic spells. But they were only destructive magics, because he was a young black mage. White magics were what Alex seemed to need...

Oh, wait, nevermind. He seemed to be coming around. "Hey, wake up, y'know," Vivi muttered, pushing Alex's shoulder a little.

Alexander groaned and pushed himself up, propping himself onto his elbows. "Who's that?" he muttered groggily, blinking at the kid. "Vivi?"

"What happened, y'know?" Vivi inquired, stepping back as Alexander stood up. "Were you just taking a nap, y'know?"

Alex was a little put off by this. A nap was a far stretch from the truth. "Er... not really..." He blinked, and stared down at Vivi. "Hey, what's with the 'y'know' thing?"

"Does it sound cool, y'know?" Vivi demanded, jumping a little in excitement. "Cool like Rai, y'know!"

"Uh, yeah," Alex said quickly, not wanting to dwell too much on it. "Sure. Cool like Rai." He then turned away from Vivi with a sigh, and started walking back toward the town.

Vivi jumped a little higher, emboldened by the encouragement. If he was cooler, Seifer and the others would be friends with him more! But, before he would forget, he looked toward Alex and said, "Hey, Alex!" Alex glanced back, and Vivi said, "Um... thanks for yesterday, y'know. I don't remember much of it, but... y'know, thanks for helping me out, y'know."

At this, Alexander was a bit more surprised. But he smiled back at Vivi and waved, saying, "No problem. See you later, Vivi."

* * *

Alex groaned as he pushed the curtain to the usual spot aside, and rubbed the back of his neck. Technically, the Awakening had been a dream, but his body still felt sore from the falling and flailing he'd done. "Stupid Awakening dreams..."

"Hey, Alex!" Hayner greeted him with a grin as Alex plopped onto a crate. "Where'd you run off to?"

"Training," Alex said simply. "I went to the woods to think, and I found a way back into my Awakening." He paused for dramatic effect, and added, "I won this time."

All three of them became excited at this. "So... you can use the Lockshield now?" Olette asked, looking at him expectantly like the others were.

Alex smirked at the attention, and held out his right hand. He closed his eyes in concentration, and for a moment he feared it wouldn't work. But then his hand was covered in an inky black smoke, and the Lockshield appeared in his hand.

"Alright!" Pence cheered.

Hayner sighed in relief. "Alright, that takes care of one of our problems. That's good to see, Alex."

"Yeah..." Alexander said with a shrug, "but it wasn't easy. Took a lot of work." A thought crossed his mind. "Hey, speaking of work... how'd the report go?"

Olette walked toward one of the crates, which had their paper resting on it. Picking it up and walking back toward Alex, she said, "We got it finished a couple of hours ago, actually."

Alex started to reach out for the paper, but froze at the end of Olette's sentence. "..._Hours_!?" he repeated incredulously. "Good grief! How long was I gone!?"

The three teens shared a glance, and Pence said, "For most of the day, really."

The young man sighed and rolled his eyes. "Nevermind. Just let me see the report." He was given the report by Pence, and he started to read. It started off by relating to the Struggle tournament the day before, in an attempt to attract attention by relating to that experience. A clever hook for the beginning. Then it went into the information, providing as much information as Alex had given them before. He was surprised that they'd remembered so much after all that had happened. And they'd even made some interesting inferences.

Alex smiled as he finished up. "That's pretty good. And I think it's accurate, too."

Hayner pumped a fist into the air. "Yes! Independent study: Complete!"

Alexander smirked and made a similar motion. "Awakening: Complete!"

Both teens giggled at how silly they were being, and they were soon joined by Pence and Olette in laughter. The rest of the day went by peacefully, free of worry. Alex, for one, appreciated the calm.

For tomorrow was Day 6. The most important day of all.


	6. The 6th Day

Chapter 6  
The 6th Day

Alexander set his alarm early that next day. He woke up long before the sunrise, in order to prepare himself. He liked being early for occasions like this. Better early than late. He had already gotten dressed in just a green T-shirt, blue jeans, and black sneakers. He was washed, fed, and ready to go. Today was an important day, after all.

**Your journey begins in the dead of night.**

He remembered those words from his Awakening. Looking out the window, he saw the darkened Twilight Town, without the golden sun shining on it. A rare sight for those who merely play the game. Still, the sun was already beginning to rise. "It's a little late to be the dead of night," he reckoned aloud.

That statement from his Awakening still confused him. Was it somehow implying that it'd take longer for him to reach Level 40 before he'd start gaining Experience more rapidly? Or was it just referring to this moment, when the training wheels come off and the true journey begins?

Alex put a stop to his wondering. Today was the day that Sora would awaken. And he was more or less ready for it. As the sun rose over Twilight Town, he walked out the front door and started moving along his planned path.

* * *

Olette, Pence, and Hayner met up in the back alley. "Mornin'," Hayner greeted as he saw his friends, yawning a little. They'd decided to meet up a little earlier that morning. Once Alex arrived, there would be some planning to do.

Pence and Olette returned the greeting, and all three of them walked into the usual spot. Olette looked around, and saw that Alex hadn't quite arrived yet. Then again, he was usually the last to arrive in the morning, so that was hardly surprising.

Pence started walking toward the sofa, but he stopped suddenly. "Huh?" he mumbled, staring at something. The others looked at the spot Pence was staring at. There was a small piece of paper sitting there. And there was writing.

"Hey, look at this," Hayner said as he picked up the paper. It was a note. He read it aloud:

_Sorry, I'm not going to be around this morning. I don't mean to leave you guys behind, but today's a pretty important day. But I'm pretty sure the Nobodies are going to attack me again, so I don't want to put you guys in danger. Again, sorry. I'll see you guys later._

_It's been fun.  
Alex_

Hayner glared at the note. "He ditched us!" he exclaimed angrily, crumpling the note in his hand.

"Where could he have gone?" Pence wondered aloud. None of them wanted to let Alex just forge ahead like this. Sure, it would probably be dangerous, but they couldn't just let Alex do it alone, either. As friends, they could provide at least _some_ support.

Suddenly, a thought struck Olette. "Wait! Remember what Alex said? The first six days here at Twilight Town are only the beginning of the game."

"That's right..." Pence mumbled, catching on. "And this is the sixth day that Alex has been here."

Hayner nodded. "So... if something important was going to happen today, where would it take place?" he asked pointedly, already having an idea of such a place. The three kids gave each other meaningful looks, and started running out of the usual spot.

But just as they left, they encountered the Twilight Disciplinary Committee standing at the junction of the back alley. Seifer smirked at them and said, "Well, where might you three be going?"

* * *

Alexander entered the clearing of the woods just in front of the old mansion. He approached the gate and stood in front of it, staring at the large lock that was keeping it shut. If his deductions were right, this would be a piece of cake to remove. It needed to be done anyway; no point in locking Sora and the others inside, right?

By now, he assumed, the others would be finding the note he'd left at the usual spot. As much as he appreciated the help of his friends, he wasn't sure about what kind of danger he'd find in this mansion. And he wanted to keep his new friends away from that danger.

He took a deep breath to calm himself, and summoned the Lockshield. Alex then held it up toward the lock, with the keyhole in the center of the shield lining up with the one on the lock in front of him. "Alright, coming in! _Un_–"

"Hey, chicken wuss!"

Alexander faltered a little, and the rest of the word simply didn't make it out of his mouth. "Huh?" he mumbled, turning toward the entrance to the clearing, where the interruption had come from. Alex did a take in surprise at who was there. "Seifer!" he exclaimed.

Seifer smirked back at him as Rai, Fuu, and Vivi took place on either side of him. And to the side, Alexander could see Hayner, Pence, and Olette walking toward them all. All of them had shown up for this. This made Alexander incredibly confused. "Wha... What are you all doing here!?"

"Joining you, of course," Hayner said, holding up the note Alex had left. "You kinda made it obvious for us to find you. As if you were gonna scoop us, twerp!"

Still confused, Alex took little offense to the remark. "Obvious?" he echoed. "How did you know...?"

"It's the sixth day you've been here, right?" Olette cut in, looking toward the mansion. "We were all thinking of investigating the mansion anyway, because of all the Nobody activity lately. It is the most suspicious place. You just kinda... started it for us."

Alex looked toward Seifer questioningly. He didn't even have to ask.

Rai scowled. "Who said it wasn't our business too, y'know? We have a duty to the town, y'know!"

"Likewise," Fuu agreed.

"Those Nobodies," Seifer added, "have made far too many attacks for my liking. This is the kind of thing the Disciplinary Committee was formed for. Taking 'disciplinary measures'." Vivi, who was hiding behind Seifer, merely peeked out and nodded in agreement.

Pence looked toward the mansion. "If there are Nobodies in there, then having more of us around won't hurt much. Even if some of us can't fight, you, Seifer, and Hayner can protect us well enough, right?"

Hayner grinned and rested his Struggle club on his shoulder, while Seifer merely brought his out and held it at his side. Alexander looked at them, and then looked up toward the mansion. As annoyed as he felt for having his grand plan ruined, it also made him feel glad that they cared that much about this. About helping him. It made him feel... appreciated.

Not that he'd ever admit how badly he wanted to feel that.

"Alright, enough chat," Seifer snapped, looking at the locked gate. "How do we get in?"

Alexander rolled his eyes. "I was getting to that before you guys barged in." He sighed and held up his Lockshield again toward the lock. "_Unlock_!" he intoned. A bright blue beam of energy suddenly shot out from the keyhole in the Lockshield, and stabbed into the lock on the gate. A resounding _click_ echoed into the clearing, and the lock was soon overtaken by a bright light. The lock vanished into thin air, and the gate slowly swung open.

Alex looked down at his shield, looking rather surprised. He'd had a hunch that would work, but he still hadn't been prepared for an effect of that kind. This supernatural stuff would take some time to get used to.

* * *

Alexander pushed open the doors to the mansion, and the group of eight walked into the mansion's dark lobby. The lighting was dim; most of the bright light came from outside. Vivi looked from wall to wall curiously, remarking, "Wow, I've never seen the inside before..."

It was a rather spacious lobby, even if it seemed a little shabby. There was some large pieces of debris across the first floor, indicating the mansion's shabby state of repair. A larger pile of rubble even blocked off one of the doors to the right. There was another door to the left, and there was a glass screen door between the staircases on the other side of the room. The upstairs was simply a lobby from their perspective, though it seemed to lead to a couple of other rooms on the sides.

Alex was rather impressed by the scale of everything. The game always made things seem a little too small. He took a step forward... and ended up triggering the arrival of several Dusks into the room. A collective shout of surprise came from the group, and the non-fighters retreated back toward the door. Alexander, Seifer, and Hayner took fighting stances as the Dusks slowly approached.

People suddenly noticed that Vivi hadn't moved in the slightest, as if he wasn't sure if he would face the Nobodies or not. Seifer looked at him and ordered, "Stay back!" Vivi nodded and quickly ran toward the others, and intently watched the imminent fight.

Hayner charged first. He thrust his club into one of the Dusks, catching it in the midsection before it could react. Grinning at his success, he swung down at its head and sent it crashing down. As it rebounded, Hayner used his uppercut strike to send it spinning backward. Finally, he spun around with the club held out in front of him. The momentum of the attack hit the Dusk, which disappeared.

Seifer smirked at the Dusk he was facing. "Come on," he urged the Nobody, waiting for it to attack. The Dusk quickly obliged, moving in a serpentine motion toward him. Seifer quickly slashed down on the creature's head, knocking it away. The Dusk, once it recovered, rose high into the air and flipped over, walking upside-down toward Seifer as it started swinging its sharp arms. Seifer jumped high into the air, shouting, "Isn't this romantic!" as he crashed down on the unsuspecting Dusk from above and slammed it into the ground. That was all the Nobody would take.

Alex ran forward and slashed the last Dusk a few times. The Dusk tried to counterattack, but Alexander jumped over it to dodge the strike. As soon as the attack ceased, he felt a Reversal reaction building up in his nerves, which he let take over. The Dusk looked around frantically as Alex seemed to disappear from view. With this bought time, Alexander brought his shield up and slammed the Dusk into the ground, crushing it with the force. The Dusk shuddered a bit as it tried to escape from under the shield, but it finally burst into nothingness.

The young man stood straight again, breathing a little heavily. The first battle of the day was always an interesting warm-up. Still, there had been fewer Dusks than he'd expected. Perhaps they weren't so keen on appearing before so many residents of the town?

He glanced back toward the others, and then looked around at the mansion. There seemed only one right path, but he wasn't sure if there might be something else worth investigating. So he said, "Okay, let's split up. We'll search these rooms and see if there's anything worth looking into."

"Sounds fine," Hayner agreed. "Who'll go where?"

Alex thought for a moment, and then looked up at the second floor. "Olette, Vivi, you two go with Seifer and check up the upstairs room to the left." Looking down at the door on the left side, he said, "Rai, you and Hayner go check out this first floor room." He then glanced back up to the other side of the second floor. "Pence and Fuu, you two search the second floor room on the other side." Finally, staring at the glass panes between the staircases, he said, "I'm gonna look into this area in the middle."

* * *

Seifer opened the door they'd been told to go through, and the three of them went inside. He squinted a little as they walked in; everything was incredibly bright. Everything. Even the table and chairs in the center of the room.

"Wow..." Vivi mumbled as he looked around. "It's really bright in here..."

Olette looked toward all the walls. There were many sketches of various things hanging up. She knelt down and picked up a sketch that had fallen onto the floor. "Who drew these?" she wondered aloud. Someone had to have drawn them...

Vivi followed Seifer over to the large window, watching the breeze outside make the curtains shake. Seifer chuckled and said, "Hey, do you remember one of those rumors we heard. About the girl that people saw in this window?"

The kid nodded in reply. Seifer shook his head and said, "I'll bet it was just these curtains blowing. Everything's foggy in this window, in or out, so it seems possible."

"I don't know," Olette said as she walked over to them, holding the sketch in her hands. "Someone had to have been drawing all of these."

She looked again at the drawing she was holding. It was a simple drawing made with crayons, it seemed. There were two figures drawn there, holding hands. On the right was a blond-haired figure wearing a dark suit, and on the left was a brunet with brightly colored cloths. Somehow, the people seemed to be familiar... But who was in the picture?

Olette shook her head and placed it on the table. "Well, doesn't look like there's much else. I'm gonna go tell Alex."

Seifer nodded. "Be right there," he said as Olette walked out of the room. When it was just him and Vivi, he said, "Hey, Vivi. You know anything about what happened with you at the Struggle?"

Vivi shook his head. "Not much, other than what you told me. The night before, I just went to bed... and the next thing I knew, I was on the ground in front of you guys." He paused, and looked up at Seifer. "Was there... really an impostor of me?"

"Yeah," Seifer muttered. "He was tough. ...He beat me in the Struggle match." A small silence settled between them. "When I was beaten, I knew that it wasn't you. I just knew that you weren't that tough."

Vivi looked down, getting his meaning. But then Seifer added, "I don't like thinking of you as the weakling, Vivi. It makes me sick. ...But seeing your impostor fight out there, it almost made me wish it _was_ you. I'd like to see you as a powerful fighter."

Seifer turned around and walked out of the room, leaving Vivi there. After a few moments, Vivi looked back up and out the window thoughtfully. "Powerful..." he mumbled. He then turned around and dashed toward the door, not wanting to get left far behind.

* * *

Alexander slowly opened up the glass door and stepped through. He was now outside, in an inner garden of some sort. There were stone steps leading down to the grassy area in front of him, and there were various flower bushes along the sides. There was also a stone statue that seemed to have once served as a fountain, but the statue was anything but recognizable, and it obviously wasn't running.

The boy walked down onto the grass, looking around in amazement. This was definitely not something that one would've been able to see in the game. It was only in the reality of the world that he had this opportunity.

Alex walked over to the statue, placing his hands along the ledge formed by the circular basin below the statue. He looked down into the small reservoir, but there was no water. Not even a soaked section of stone. It had been dry for a long time.

But there was something there. Off to the right side in the basin, there was a small black hole. Alex shifted around the fountain until he was peering directly from above it. From that perspective, he could see that it was a small keyhole shape. What was it doing here...?

Suddenly, the Lockshield reappeared in his hand, and his hand was dragged out until it was over the hole, twisted so that the face of the shield was facing down. "What the...!?" he exclaimed, wincing at the sudden twisting of his arm, shifting his head and torso down so that the rest of his body didn't complain.

From that new perspective, he watched as a blue beam emerged from his shield and entered the hole in the empty fountain. There was another loud clicking sound that resonated through the garden, and the blue beam dissipated. Control finally returned to Alexander, who brought back his arm and held it close to his body, being careful of the now-tender muscles in his arm.

He glanced over the edge of the basin again, but the strange hole was now gone. "What was that?" he muttered to himself.

"Hey, Alex!" he heard someone call out from behind him. Alex looked back to see Olette standing at the glass door, motioning for him to return. Alexander gave the statue one last glance, and then ran back toward the inside of the mansion.

Olette closed the glass screen behind him, and asked, "Did you find anything?"

Alexander considered whether or not to talk about the strange event in the garden. He decided against it, since he didn't really know what had happened himself. "Nothing, really. You?"

"Nothing important on this side," Seifer groaned as he walked down the staircase, with Vivi running to catch up.

The door on the first floor opened again, and Hayner and Rai stepped out. As everyone gave them their silent inquiries, Rai quickly said, "There was just a broken table in there, y'know."

"Not much else," Hayner added. "The table looked pretty darn sturdy; I'll bet it took a huge force to break it. But other than that, nothing really interesting."

"Hey, guys!" another voice called out. Everyone looked up to see Pence waving from the balcony above, with Fuu standing beside him. "You won't believe what we found over here!" Pence shouted. "You've got to check this out!"

* * *

"Secret," Fuu simply stated as the entire group walked into the library. There was only a few feet of flooring starting from their side of the room... before it gave way to a futuristic-looking room, which looked to have been below the floor in the first place. There was a staircase on the left leading down into the relatively underground section.

Alex was fascinated. "Was it like this when you got here?"

Pence nodded. "Yep. It looks like there's more to this secret lab stuff, too. Let's get going!" He led the others down the stairs and into the mechanized section, and took them into the next room.

The room the teens now found themselves in was rather small. There were some screens with unintelligible lines of data streaming across them, along with some small electrical machines to the sides. In the back corner of the room, there was a tall computer terminal.

"This is pretty mysterious, y'know," Rai remarked as they all piled into the room.

Pence squeezed past everyone and stood next to the computer terminal. "We got about this far before we came back to tell you guys. I think I can figure it out," he added, slipping into the chair and beginning to work with the interface in front of him.

As Pence worked, Fuu muttered, "Cramped," which accurately described the room and its current occupants.

"Hmm..." Pence mumbled as he stopped typing.

"What is it?" Hayner asked worriedly.

Pence shrugged. "A lot of this stuff has passwords on it. There seems to be only one function that doesn't have protection." He did a bit more typing, and the door to their left slid open. "Yeah, that's it."

Alexander looked toward the door thoughtfully. If his guess was right, then this would be the point where things got really dangerous. After a moment, he said, "Alright. This is where I insist you guys let me go on alone."

"What!?" Olette exclaimed incredulously.

"Cheap," Fuu stated.

"Why can't we come along, y'know?" Rai demanded.

But Seifer simply said, "Okay, let's go." He started walking out of the computer room, and Rai and Fuu followed him out after a moment. Vivi stared at Alex for a moment, but then left as well.

Pence got off the chair, and the three teens looked at Alex. Hayner had a grim expression. "So your journey starts right here, then?" he asked.

Alex looked back toward his friends and nodded slowly. "Pretty much, yeah. I appreciate all the help, but I gotta start getting used to this kind of thing." He wanted to say more, but worried that he'd spend all day saying goodbye to his new friends, the people who'd helped him get even this far alive.

"...Okay. It's alright," Olette reassured him. "Be sure to visit every now and then, okay?"

"We'll be waiting at the usual spot," Pence added. He and Olette started walking out of the computer room.

"You be careful out there, you got that?" Hayner ordered. "You'd better hope that I taught you well enough for whatever's out there."

Alex rolled his eyes. "That's great for my confidence, Hayner. Really."

The two boys shared a quiet chuckle. Hayner nodded at him and said, "I'm sure you'll do fine. See ya later." And with that, he walked out of the computer room at last. Alex was now alone in facing the trials ahead.

* * *

Alexander walked through the door and entered the dark, square room. He looked from side to side, but there wasn't anyone around. Not yet. Apprehensive, he summoned his Lockshield.

Almost in response to the defensive gesture, some Nobodies began to appear. Three Dusks appeared on the other side of the room, but a couple of another type joined them. They were also humanoid in appearance, though they were pink in color and they swayed a fair bit further than the Dusks did.

Alex groaned. "Oh no... Not _Dancers_..." It seemed that the Organization was finally varying their attack force. That was going to make things a little more difficult.

One of the Dusks started to advance. Alexander dodged the initial attack, and then used a Reversal to get the upper hand on the Nobody. He then slashed the Dusk a couple of times to damage it and send it a distance away for a few moments. By then, the other two Dusks were closing in on him.

Alexander spun around with his shield's face outward, smacking the two Dusks aside and sending them spinning confusedly toward their ally. Suddenly, Alex felt something grab him from behind, and he was hurled toward the far wall. He crashed into the wall and was disoriented for a moment, but looked back to see that it was one of the Dancers that had thrown him. They were tricky like that.

He ran toward the recovering Dusks, giving the Dancers a wide berth. The Dusks rose into the air to attempt a counterattack, and Alex jumped into the air to meet them. He slashed the foremost Dusk and whacked it back toward its comrades. One of the Nobodies that was hit in the effect, the one that had received the first damage, disappeared into nothingness.

As soon as he landed, Alex followed up and struck the Dusks again, managing to take another one of them out. But then he was grabbed again by another Dancer, and he was thrown into another wall. While he was disoriented once more by the pain, the last Dusk approached and tried to attack him. But Alex recovered at the last second and moved out of the way, letting the Dusk ram its head into the wall. The young man then slammed his shield into the Dusk, crushing it against the wall and destroying it.

It was time to face the Dancers at last. Alexander and the two Dancers stood at opposite sides of the room, staring each other down for a few moments. Then Alex rushed forward, heading toward the Dancer on the left. He swung the blade of his shield down toward the Nobody, but the Dancer gracefully stepped to the side to avoid the strike. Knowing that another throw was coming up, Alex ducked as the Dancer tried to grab him again.

Alex got an idea. It wasn't a reaction coming to him, but it was something. He grabbed the Dancer's hand and held on tightly, then spun around once and threw it toward the other one. The two Dancers collided and crumpled to the ground. While they were down, Alexander ran toward them and slashed them a couple of times with his shield. The two Dancers, thrown back by the attacks, finally recovered and moved toward Alex again. But at that moment, the boy swung his shield around and whacked both Nobodies, and the two Dancers faded into nothingness.

A dark portal opened up in the far corner of the room, and a figure wearing an Organization XIII cloak stepped out of it. Alex, breathing heavily from the intense fight, stood straight and looked toward the figure. "...Saïx?" he mumbled, assuming that the seventh member had come back for him again.

The figure shook his head. "Nah, he was tired of chasing after you," a younger, more innocent voice than Saïx's replied. "Said he had more important stuff to do. ...Though I doubt it..."

Alexander smirked as he recognized the voice. "Ah... You're Demyx, aren't you? Number 9, the Melodious Nocturne?"

The stranger faltered a little, and pulled back his hood. It was indeed the young, blond-haired Demyx. "Wow, Saïx was right," he remarked. "It _is_ pretty annoying when you go and say my title and all that."

As much as he didn't like being face to face with an enemy, Alex was a little reassured to know that it was merely Demyx. "So," he said, brandishing the Lockshield once more, "why are you here? Don't tell me that you want me to go to your Superior again..."

Demyx rubbed the back of his head. "Uh... yeah, that's pretty much it." His countenance suddenly changed slightly. "I mean, c'mon! Don't you want to know about why _you're_ here? You have incredible potential, and the Superior can help you utilize it!"

Alex raised an eyebrow. "What, is that your boss's words coming out of your mouth? Sorry, fat chance of me visiting the antagonist."

Demyx's confidence instantly vanished. He sighed and turned away, muttering, "Why me...? They said it would be easy work... Hmph, Axel gets to go fetch the traitor, while I..."

"Hey!" Alex shouted, making Demyx flinch. "I'm still here, y'know! Are you going to leave now, or do I have to fight through a unstable coward like you?"

"Watch what you say!" Demyx whined as he faced Alex again. "I have feelings, you know. That's pretty insulting."

Alexander rolled his eyes. "Oh, please. As if I don't know about you guys and the Nobodies. You don't even have a heart, so don't bother trying to fool me like that."

Demyx winced and lowered his head. "...It's still insulting," he mumbled. He slowly held out his arms. Suddenly, water rose up from all four walls of the room, and moved – suspended in the air – until it formed a hemispherical bubble within the room that surrounded the two of them. Some of the water fell down from the bubble and splattered onto the ground at Alex's feet. One such drip splashed onto Alex's head, soaking his hair.

Alex glared at Demyx and shook his head, but assumed a defensive fighting stance. The Nobody was setting up his arena, so Alex was at an obvious disadvantage. A large mass of water appeared near the Organization member's hands, and his sitar appeared in a flash of light.

Demyx grinned as he took hold of his sitar and began to strum it. "Dance, water, dance!" he called out, beginning to play a tune that only he could hear. From all sides of the bubble, many watery clones emerged and slowly began to approach Alex. It was hard to tell in the small space, but Alex could guess that there was about thirty or forty of them.

Alexander swung his shield at one of the water clones a couple of times, and it easily shattered into just simple water. He then smashed another of the clones, and its form broke but didn't shatter. It seemed to take the form of a tall musical note. A reaction built up in Alex's nerves, and he let it take over.

He grabbed the water clone and swung it around. It stretched out like an elastic band and whacked many of the other clones around him. Alexander swung it around like a small whip, destroying many of the water clones, and then swung it around high over his head. It stretched out to its fullest, and destroyed just about all of the water clones around. The reaction ended, and Alex let go of the water clone. As soon as he regained his senses, he swung his shield once more and destroyed the last of them.

As soon as the last water clone fell, Demyx suddenly staggered. His sitar shattered into water, and the bubble around them fell to the ground. Alex let out a shout as they were splashed by a torrent of water from the fallen sphere. By now, he was soaked!

A dark aura appeared under Demyx's feet and slowly began to envelop him. The Nobody sighed and muttered, "Ah, man... Today's just not my day." A few more moments, and Demyx had completely faded away. All of the water that was in the room suddenly evaporated into steam, even that which had been on Alex's body. A few moments, and he was perfectly dry again.

"Convenient..." Alex remarked, letting his Lockshield fade into the darkness as he dismissed it. That battle had actually been easier than he'd thought. But, then again, Demyx hadn't been fighting at his fullest, and that particular member wasn't exactly the strongest of them anyway.

Or maybe Alex was getting even stronger! ...Nah.

Alexander looked around at the room, his gaze settling on the other door in the room. No doubt, Roxas was in the alternate Twilight Town in his same situation, just having beaten Axel. It felt weird to Alex, being in that kind of situation. Was he standing in the exact same spot Roxas was right now?

He started walking toward the door, taking a deep breath. This was the moment of truth. The door slid open automatically as he approached, and Alex stepped through.

He was now in a moderately-sized hallway, which made a sharp turn to the right halfway through it. Along the left wall there was a small track, carrying many tall, flower-shaped pods along it. The track wasn't moving, so the pods were simply remaining still.

Alexander walked along the pods until he came to the corner of the hallway. He looked through the barely transparent pods until he found two that were occupied. Alex's eyes widened in shock, and he took a tentative step back from the sight. One pod had a small short, white-feathered duck in it wearing blue garments. The pod to the left of it held a tall dog-like figure wearing green traveling clothes.

"Oh my God..." Alex mumbled, his breath caught in his throat. "...Donald? Goofy?!"


	7. A New Day

Chapter 7  
A New Day

Alexander simply stood where he was, too stunned to move. He could hardly even think. His mind was having too much trouble processing what was right in front of him. In those pods were two characters that had been a nearly constant part of his childhood, and whom he'd envied in the Kingdom Hearts games. Except... they weren't characters anymore. They were real, in the flesh... right in front of him!

After a few more moments of shock, he realized how ridiculous he must've looked in that position, and finally regained control of his composure. He looked up at the pods, peering at the sleeping, upright forms of Donald and Goofy. Alex stared at the pods for awhile, and realized that there was a problem. The two of them were still asleep, and they would have to wake up Sora pretty soon. They needed to be awakened now.

Alex considered whether or not trying it himself would be a bad idea. Would waking them up too soon have some unintended, negative consequence? Well, there shouldn't be. Naminé, the memory witch herself, would've been just finished repairing the memories of the trio, so they could really just be awakened anytime.

The boy took a couple of steps closer to the pods, looking for some kind of seam or layer that he could pry open. He was short on ideas. "How do I get them open?" he muttered. Almost on cue, a light shone from the two pods in a flash, startling Alex and sending him scuttling back toward the other side of the hall.

The light flashed along the seams of the pods, which were quite like flower petals in design. The front halves of the two pods stuttered open suddenly, and then slowly eased down to the ground, opening up the pods. Some mist poured out of the pods and began to evaporate. Alexander simply remained where he was, dumbstruck.

Then, to Alexander's further befuddlement, Donald started to move. He swayed to the side for a moment, then stumbled a little as he yawned and stretched. With a raspy groan, the duck stepped down from the pod, rubbing his eyes and letting out another small yawn. Alex inched away as Donald came out of his pod.

Then, as the duck's eyes were fully opened, Donald suddenly stopped and squawked in surprise. He definitely wasn't expecting to be here! Donald looked from side to side, and his gaze suddenly rested on Alex, who jumped a little as the focus landed on him. The duck narrowed his eyes and shouted, "Hey!" in his trademark raspy voice. He slowly advanced on Alexander and said, "Who are you? Where are we? What's going on!?"

Alex stepped back as the duck approached, holding his hands up as a defensive gesture. "I... I'm Alex," he finally replied, trying to gain back some confidence. "You're in the basement of an old mansion in the world of Twilight Town. I just... found you in these pod things."

The duck definitely didn't look convinced, and he kept his glare focused. "Just happened to find us, huh?" he muttered, dubious about the stranger that Alex was to him. Glancing over at Goofy, he quacked, "Then how come _he's_ still asleep?"

The young man glanced over at the other Disney character. Indeed, Goofy was still asleep, quietly snoring as he stood there. Still, Donald expected him to know why he was still out of it? Shrugging, Alex replied, "I don't know... Is he a heavy sleeper?"

Donald facepalmed at this, and Alex let out a little sigh of relief. His guess had been accurate enough to bring the attention off himself. The duck shook his head and said, "Oh, right." He then cleared his throat, and shouted, "Wake up, Goofy! Wake up!!"

Goofy stirred a little, halting mid-snore and blinking once, before closing his eyes and settling into sleep again. Donald growled and held out a hand toward Goofy. "_Blizzard_!"

To Alexander's surprise, a small cluster of ice crystals seemed to shoot out from Donald's hand, striking Goofy and slamming him against the side of his pod. With a cry of surprise, Goofy stumbled out of the pod and fell to the floor, collapsing in a heap. Alex simply stood to the side, amazed by the use of magic on Donald's part. It was interesting in the game, but it was truly a marvel in reality!

At length, Goofy finally picked himself off the floor and got up to a kneeling position, looking at Donald. Giving the duck a small wave, he greeted him with, "Hey there, Donald. G'morning."

Donald shook his head. "Get up, Goofy. We have to find Sora." Looking around, he said, "Sora might be asleep around here too."

Alexander sharply inhaled at the mention of the protagonist, though it fortunately went unnoticed.

"Asleep?" Goofy muttered, confused. "We were sleepin'? Hmm..." He finally got to his feet, brushed himself off, and glanced from side to side. He noticed Alex finally, and jumped a little in surprise. "Oh, hello there! Who might you be?"

Goofy held out his hand, and Alex hesitated for a moment. Willing himself to calm down with all of his mental ability, Alex reached out and grabbed Goofy's hand. And they shook hands. "I'm, uh, Alexander," the boy finally said, trying not to freak out. "...Alex for short."

Donald moved between them, breaking the handshake. Looking at Goofy, he stated, "He says he just found us sleeping in those things."

"Okay," Goofy replied, smiling at Alex. "Well, nice to meet you, Alex. My name's Goofy. And this here's my best buddy, Donald Duck!"

There was a pause, and Alex smiled back. "Donald and Goofy," he repeated, finally starting to calm down. "Nice to meet the two of you." He sighed in relief internally; he was at last becoming comfortable with the idea of being with these two in the flesh.

"Well, Alex," Donald interrupted again, his distrust evident in his raspy tone, "would you happen to know where our friend is too?"

The honest response, Alex knew, was to say that he did happen to know. But he didn't want to seem suspicious by knowing in advance. After all, if the pattern still held, these two didn't know about their existence in the game universe yet. So, instead, he looked toward the other end of the hallway – where the only other door was – and said, "Well... he isn't back the way I came, so he might be further on ahead."

* * *

The door opened up automatically for the three of them, and the trio flinched at the sudden influx of light that accompanied it. When their vision cleared, Alex, Donald, and Goofy entered the room in front of them, all of them awestruck by it. It was almost completely white, and seemed as if it went on forever in all directions because it was so bright. In the center of the room was a gigantic pod, in which Alex knew what was contained.

Goofy hummed thoughtfully. "Hmm... This is pretty impressive. But, uh... just where are we?"

Donald glanced at Alex. "You said this place was called Twilight Town?" he asked, and then blinked. A thought had occurred to the duck, and he scowled at it.

The duck's expression went unnoticed by Alex. "Yeah," he mumbled passively as he walked toward the gigantic pod. "That's right." He stood about half a foot away from the pod, staring at it as if he was trying to see through it. Sora was inside; he knew that for a fact. Alex almost trembled in his tennis shoes just thinking about it.

Goofy also regarded the pod. "Y'think Sora's in here?"

Alex glanced to one side of the pod, and saw a small control panel there that was giving a readout. He moved over to it and peered at the screen. Most of it was in tiny Japanese characters, so he couldn't read it. But he was pretty sure of what at least two of the characters meant. "I'll bet," he replied, beginning to walk back toward the two Disney protagonists. "There's someone in here, at least. Probably Sora."

Donald nodded, and stared up at the pod. "Sora!" he called out as loudly as he could.

"Sora, wake up!!" Goofy yelled, following suit.

There were a few moments of silence, and, for a moment, Alex feared that nothing would happen. But then there was the sounds of machinery in motion, and the entire front of the pod shone at the seams much like Donald and Goofy's had. The gigantic petal-like folds of the pod stuttered open, and then slowly lowered to the ground to let its occupant get some fresh air.

A young man, possibly only a year older than Alex if at all, fell to the floor of the pod as if he'd been suspended before. He was dressed in clothes that were a tad too small for him, but they were undoubtedly unrecognizable. And who could miss the spiky, brunet hair? Alexander's breathing ceased for a second as he regarded Sora, the Keyblade Master, for the first time in the flesh.

Sora, looking very tired from his sleep, let out a loud yawn and stretched his arms for a few seconds. Amused at the sight of him, Donald and Goofy started to chuckle. Seeing this, Sora grinned and jumped out of the pod.

To the Disney characters' surprise, Sora leaned forward and grabbed both of them by the waist, hugging them tightly even as he lost his balance for a moment. "Donald! Goofy!" he shouted with joy as he stood up again. Alex stepped back for a moment.

The three of them held hands and jumped in a circle, laughing gleefully at their reunion. Once they'd made a full revolution, they stopped at last and started to calm down. The very small figure of Jiminy Cricket popped out from the hood of Sora's outfit and stretched while standing on the boy's shoulder. After a yawn, the cricket remarked, "That was some nap!"

As Jiminy jumped off and landed on the floor, Sora glanced at him with a confused look. "You mean... we were asleep?"

Jiminy rubbed the back of his neck. "I guess we musta been," he replied, "or I don't think we'd be so drowsy..."

"When do you think we went to sleep?" Goofy asked, voicing the question on all their minds.

No answer came to any of them. "Uhh..." Donald mumbled, words failing him. He suddenly looked over at Alex, and said, "Do you have any idea?"

All eyes turned to him. Sora was surprised to see him, obviously, and Alex suddenly felt put on the spot. "Hm? Who are you?" Sora asked curiously.

Alexander felt nervous, but decided to take the initiative for once. Holding out his hand, he said, "Hi there. You must be... Sora, right? I'm Alexander." Glancing at Donald, he then replied, "Sorry, I don't really know for sure. I just found you guys." That was another lie, but he couldn't really explain himself if he stated what he knew.

"He's the one who found us sleepin'," Goofy stated, gesturing toward Alex.

Sora took Alex's hand and shook it, nodding. "Alright. Nice to meet'cha." As he let go of Alex's hand, he hesitantly said, "Could you... excuse us for a moment?"

Alexander nodded in understanding. They didn't want to discuss their previous adventure with him around. They thought he was just an innocent citizen. "Sure," he said, stepping back. "Go ahead."

The four adventurers huddled up. "Let's see..." Sora began, and Donald, Goofy, and Jiminy listened in. "We defeated Ansem..."

"Yep," Goofy confirmed.

"...restored peace to the worlds..." Sora continued, "...found Kairi... Oh yeah, and then we went to look for Riku. I _think_ that's right so far."

Donald frowned. "**Then** what?"

Another silence descended onto them, but Goofy broke it with an idea. Looking toward the cricket among them, he asked, "What does your journal say, Jiminy?"

The cricket brought out his tiny journal and opened it up to where a tiny bookmark was, in the middle of the pages. He seemed surprised by what he saw written in tiny letters. "Gee," Jiminy replied, "there's only one sentence... 'Thank Naminé.' Hmm... I wonder who that is?"

That gave them little information. The trio glanced among themselves with searching looks, but they all shook their heads simultaneously when nothing rung bells. Disappointed, Donald gave Jiminy the evil eye. "Some journal _that_ is."

Jiminy faltered for a moment, but hastily attempted to change the subject. "Well – what do ya say we find out where we are?!"

Goofy looked over to Alex again, and said, "Okay, Alex, you can come back now!"

Alex looked back and nodded. Actually, having mostly memorized the lines that took place here, he already knew what had been exchanged. But he'd honestly stayed out of earshot for this particular moment.

Donald gestured to Alex and said to Sora, "He says we're in a place called Twilight Town, and this is in the basement of an old mansion."

Sora looked at Alex with an intrigued look. "Really...?" When Alex silently nodded in reply, Sora added, "Woah... That makes it even _more_ mysterious..."

Alexander put up a hand to signal that he had a suggestion. "Well, tell you what. I'll lead you back into town, and you guys can find your bearings from there."

"Alright," Sora agreed. "Sure you can't show us around some?"

Alex shrugged. "Nah, I've got... some stuff to take care of. Maybe I'll catch up with you guys later." He started walking back toward the door. "Anyway, just follow me."

The four travelers gave each other meaningful looks, but then started to follow. Jiminy jumped back onto Sora and assumed his hiding spot. Donald was the last one to follow; he had a suspicious look on his face, but he finally – grudgingly – followed.

* * *

Alexander led the trio out of the mansion and back through the woods, but split up from there. Sora, Donald, and Goofy walked through Twilight Town, looking around with curiosity at the new place. They made their way to a back alley in their exploration, and found one unusual spot at the corner of the alley with a gate and a ragged curtain.

As Donald and Goofy went toward it to investigate, Sora paused and looked around. Seeing this, the dynamic duo looked back at him. In reply to their silent inquiry, Sora said, "Y'know, I think I've been to this town."

Donald seemed dubious. "What makes you think that?"

Sora shrugged. "Hard to say. Just... the name Twilight Town, and how everything looks... I think it's ringing some bells."

"Really?" Goofy asked, and shared a glance at Donald. He then asked, "When do you think you'd been here before?"

At this, the Keyblade Master failed to come up with words. "I dunno... I guess I must've imagined it."

Donald scowled and walked toward Sora. "Well, I think there's more here than what meets the eye," he stated with a fair amount of conviction. When he was given confused looks in response, the duck replied, "That kid, Alex... Well, he knows about the worlds!"

Goofy and Sora flinched at this news. "Really?!" Sora exclaimed. "He knows about them?"

Donald nodded. "Yeah. He said the world was called Twilight Town. He used the word 'world'. That means he knows more than he's telling us."

"But," Goofy wondered, "why would he pretend not to know?"

Sora nodded. "We'll ask him when we see him next. Maybe he knows about Riku or something, if he knows about the different worlds."

* * *

Hayner, Pence, and Olette lounged around at the usual spot, looking bored. Events had been slow to come around since they'd returned from the mansion. It seemed they were just waiting for something to happen. There had been one unusual visitor, but that had been a while ago...

Suddenly, the curtain was pushed open, and three strange visitors simply waltzed in. Hayner glared up at them. For one thing, they were basically just barging in! But for another, these characters were rather strange looking. A boy with spiky hair and strange clothes, and a clothed, upright dog and duck. Almost about as strange as their last visitor...

Still, he wasn't going to trust at first. Strange characters had meant trouble lately. "What do you want!?" he muttered, not getting off from his seat on the unused heater.

The human of the trio held his hands up defensively. "Uh, nothing," he said innocently, placing a hand on the back of his spiky-haired head. "Just wondering what was back here."

Hayner rolled his eyes. It almost sounded like what Alex had said when he first entered the usual spot. "Well, this is our spot," he said pointedly. "Now you know."

Pence got up from his seat and walked toward the trio, peering at them curiously. "Umm... You're... new around here, right? I'm Pence."

"Hayner," the other boy said as he finally got up and joined his friend. "Nice to meet you, but we've got stuff to do, so catch ya later." He simply gave them a small wave as he walked out.

Olette gave Hayner a faint glare of a look, but then smiled at the newcomers. "My name's Olette," she said by way of introduction. As if suddenly reminded of something, she added, "Hey, did you finish up the summer homework yet? Independent studies are the worst, huh?"

"Homework?" the middle one echoed, almost incredulously. He looked toward his inhuman companions, who simply shrugged away the request for a suggestion.

"Hey," Pence said, "what're your names?"

"Oh, sorry," the tall dog on the left said. "We're Sora," he said, pointing at the human of the trio, "Donald, and Goofy." He pointed to the duck and then himself last.

Sora nodded. "Hey there."

Pence and Olette shared a glance. Their last visitor had mentioned those names. Olette looked at them and said, "Sora, Donald, Goofy, we just met someone who was looking for you."

"He sure seemed in a hurry," Pence remarked. "He had a black coat on, so I couldn't see his face, but he did have these big round ears." At the last detail, he traced large circles at the corners of his own head.

The trio seemed to think about it for a moment, and they all came to the same realization. "The King!" Donald cried out with joy.

Sora nodded, a smile suddenly on his face. "Where'd you see him?" he asked immediately.

"At the station," Pence replied simply.

"The station!" Sora echoed, excitement evident in his tone. "Thanks!"

Olette and Pence exchanged another glance. "Well..." Olette said, slightly awkwardly, "we'd better get going." She walked toward the back of the room and picked up a small piece of paper. "Hey, if you need help with that assignment, you can use ours as an example." Olette walked back and put the paper, a copy of their own report, into Sora's hand. "Just don't copy it, okay?"

Sora seemed a little confused. "Um... okay." He pocketed the paper.

Pence waved as he and Olette walked out of the usual spot. "Later!" he said, leaving Sora, Donald, and Goofy behind.

Outside of the usual spot, the two of them ran out and looked around. Hayner suddenly appeared from around the corner leading down to the sandlot, and looked toward Pence and Olette. "You gave it to him?"

Pence and Olette ran over to him. "Yeah," Pence said. "He's got it. You think...?"

Hayner scowled. "Definitely. That guy earlier was wearing an Organization coat. I'll bet these guys will need to know about the kind of trouble they might run into."

Olette looked back toward their usual spot. "Sora... He looked familiar." She frowned and folded her arms in thought. "I think I saw him in one of the sketches of the mansion's white room..."

* * *

Alexander started to climb the long slope of the Station Heights. He had finished his business at home, which was mainly cleaning himself up and getting a small bite to eat before heading out again. If he timed this right, he'd be able to continue this adventure.

He looked up the slope as he passed the bulletin board, and suddenly stopped. There was a small, short, dark figure further up the hill. It seemed to be a small person wearing an Organization cloak, but the figure had large, round ears near the top of his head. Alexander recoiled in surprise.

As soon as Alex had reacted, the figure suddenly started running up the hill at a fast pace. Alex immediately recovered and started running as well. He made it to the top of the hill, breathing heavily, but he'd lost the person he was looking for. The entire station plaza was empty save for himself.

While Alex was catching his breath, he heard a voice behind him yell out, "Hey, Alex!" Alexander slowly turned around to see Sora, Donald, and Goofy heading toward him. Sora was the one who had called out, and the young man said as he approached, "Can we ask you something?"

This caught Alex a little off guard, but he straightened up and said, "Okay. Shoot."

The trio stepped forward a little more, their heads turning from side to side searchingly. They were obviously looking for the person that Alex had just failed to catch up with. When they saw that there was no one else around, they looked back at Alexander. Donald stepped forward, "Well," he began, his tone accusative, "how is it that you know about–"

But the duck didn't get time to finish his statement. They were cut off by a bright light behind Alex, accompanied by a warping sound that the boy had come to know all too well by now. Alexander whipped around and backed away from a Dusk that had appeared only a foot away from him. As more began to appear, surrounding them and dancing around them, Alex growled, "Why _now_, of all times!?"

The adventurers were a bit baffled by the remark, but they all moved to surround Alex in a protective fashion. Donald brought out his staff, and Goofy brought out his large shield. Needless to say, Alex was immensely surprised by this action.

Sora looked at the enemies, studying them curiously. Alexander knew that the Keyblade Master didn't recognize them, especially their emblem. But with a wave of his hand, the Keyblade itself appeared in Sora's hands in a flash of light. "Don't worry; we'll take care of them!" Sora assured him.

But Alexander stepped out of their protection and held out his hand. In a puff of dark smoke, the Lockshield appeared in his own hand. It was now the trio's turn to be surprised. Goofy glanced at Alex, exclaiming, "What is _that_!?"

"Later!" Alex replied hastily, taking a defensive stance. "They're coming!"

Questions were in the air, but they were stifled as the fighters all prepared for battle. Donald thrust his staff into the air and yelled, "_Thunder_!" A small bolt of lightning shot down to the ground out of nowhere, striking a Dusk. A small shockwave also went out from the strike, damaging the two tiny Nobodies that had been beside it, which Alex recognized as Creepers.

A pair of sharp wing-like appendages suddenly phased upward from the ground, cluing in the impending attack of an Assassin Nobody. As the two sharp wings rose up and swung at Donald's back, Goofy rushed in and swung his shield in return. The two weapons clashed and glanced off harmlessly, but the Assassin was forced up from the ground, revealing its main body.

Donald whipped around, surprised by the attack that Goofy had thwarted. Sora looked as well, and then rushed back with his Keyblade. Sora stabbed the Assassin once, then dragged it up with an uppercut strike, and then finally bashed it away and defeated it.

Alexander rushed toward the Dusk that Donald had shocked, and used the Reversal reaction to get behind it. He then bashed the Dusk's head from above, crushing it into the ground and making it disappear into nothingness. Wasting little time, Alex then swung at one of the small creepers on the ground, slicing through it and defeating it immediately. Creepers were, by far, the weakest kind of Nobody.

The other Creeper rose into the air and suddenly morphed into a sword, and started swinging at Alex. Two attacks were true; Alex was cut a couple of times in the chest and knocked back. Before it could continue, though, Goofy's shield flew through the air and slammed into the Creeper, knocking it out and destroying it. Goofy had used his Bash ability and thrown his shield at the Nobody.

Alex quickly checked his wounds, and saw that his shirt had been ripped in the two places he'd been slashed in. And there were two large gashes in his skin beneath the holes. There wasn't any blood, but they still hurt like heck. Alex's breathing became a bit more difficult as he tried to get back to a fighting stance.

Suddenly, he heard a raspy "_Cure_!" and was partially blinded by a green glow that surrounded him for a moment. He felt his wounds suddenly seal up, and he felt more energized by the end of it. Alexander looked toward Donald, who was now moving toward the others to provide more magical assistance.

The boy moved back toward the trio, and the four of them looked around at their enemies again from their defensive circle. Alexander scowled at the sight, and he doubted the others were taking this much better. They were _still_ surrounded and outnumbered. More Nobodies had arrived while they were taking out the initial wave.

It was mostly Dusks by now. Donald and Goofy fell to their rears. Even Sora was beginning to falter. Alexander looked back at them with an incredulous look in his eyes. How could they be tired _already_!?

And then it hit him. It had only been a little while since they'd awakened in the mansion. And by that point, they'd been sleeping for a **year**. The exercise after being comatose for so long was probably putting too much strain on their recovering systems!

Sora fell to his rear as well, and Alex was suddenly the only one standing against the swarming Dusks. Fear ran through his body. How could he possibly protect them against these odds!? They desperately needed the _deus ex machina_ that was scheduled...!

The Dusks shuddered violently, and quickly charged forward. Alex brought his shield up and braced himself for the attack. But the contact never came. A small figure suddenly dropped down from above and swiped at the Dusk in front of Alex, destroying it immediately. He then jumped around and above the party, swiping at all of the other Dusks and taking them all out with single strikes of his weapon. In four seconds flat, he had wiped out the rest of the enemies.

Everyone looked at their savior: a short stubby figure with large, round ears, and a golden Keyblade held out to the side. Instantly recognizable. Sora crawled forward and opened his mouth to say something, but Donald and Goofy crushed him as they leaned forward. "Your Majesty?" Donald asked tentatively.

The figure, quite obvious the famed King Micky Mouse, hardly even looked at them. Keeping his eyes and face hidden from them, he said, "Shh! You gotta board the train and leave town! The train knows the way! And take Alexander with you – you all need each other." He jumped back and pulled something out from his cloak, and held it out to Sora without facing him. It was a small pouch. With a startled reaction, Alex remembered that it looked exactly like Olette's pouch.

"Here," Mickey simply said, and Sora hesitantly took the pouch.

The trio stared at it for a moment. Then, Donald looked toward the Station Heights in surprise. "Your Majesty!" he called out as Mickey went on running down the slope and out of sight.

"The king..." Sora mumbled, still remaining in shock. "Was that really him?"

Goofy thought about it for a moment. "It coulda been... Yep, I know it was!"

"Now we know he's okay!" Donald said cheerfully.

Sora did his best to recall the most recent memories they had. "The King was locked in the realm of darkness, right?" he asked, referring to the very end of their first adventure. Goofy gave him an affirmative reply. "But we just saw him," Sora added, and Donald confirmed that as well. "And if the King is here... that means Riku's here!"

Donald nodded. "He's gotta be!"

Alexander chose this moment to step into the conversation. "But, uh... Didn't the King say that we all had to get onto the train?"

It was the wrong moment. All three of them looked at Alex, and their looks became suspicious. "Right," Donald muttered, "that question we wanted to ask you..."

"Yeah?" Alex mumbled, trying to sound unsuspecting.

Sora sighed. "...Now there's a lot more questions." Shaking his head, he looked to Donald and Goofy and said, "Well, I'm gonna go look for Riku. Then he and I can go back to the islands together. Kairi's there waiting for us! What are you two gonna do?"

Both Disney characters groaned and put on serious looks, looking entirely out-of-character for a few moments. "Gawrsh, Sora," Goofy remarked. "Do ya have to ask?"

Alexander fought back a laugh, and Sora let out his mirth openly. At the laughing, Donald jumped angrily and shouted, "Hey! What's so funny!?"

Holding his stomach with one hand, Sora pointed at Donald and Goofy's heads. "Your face!" he replied while still laughing. Donald and Goofy looked at each other and studied the other's face for a few moments. Then their serious looks dissipated instantly, and all four of them broke into laughter.

Sora looked at all of them. "What do ya say, guys? Let's stick together for one more journey." Goofy and Donald nodded vigorously at this. The Keyblade Master looked to Alex and said, "And... if the King says you're coming with us, then I guess it's okay."

Alexander's eyebrows shot up in surprise. He was actually going to travel with Sora, Donald, and Goofy! He could hardly believe his luck, but he reigned it in as much as he could. Alex cleared his throat, and looked back toward the train station. "Well, let's board the train, then."

"Alright," Sora replied, and then started running toward the station. "C'mon!"

"Woah!" Alexander called out, falling behind as he and the others tried to keep up with the energetic protagonist.

* * *

As they walked into the station, next to the ticket booth, they heard a voice call out, "Wait up!" The four of them turned around to see Hayner, Pence, and Olette run into the station. Alexander smiled at the sight of his friends. Hayner grinned back.

Pence was surprised. "Alex, are you going with them?" he asked.

Alexander nodded in reply, and Sora gave Alex a questioning look. "You know them already?"

"Yeah," Hayner answered in Alex's stead. "He's a good friend of ours." The boy paused for a moment, and then said, "Hey, Sora..."

"What?" Sora asked.

Hayner paused once more, and then replied, "Nothing, but..."

"We came to see you and Alex off," Pence answered for him. "It just... seemed like something we oughta do."

Sora seemed confused, but Alex was genuinely grateful. "Thanks, guys," Alex said to his friends.

Suddenly, a bell sounded off in the very back of the station. The train would be leaving soon, with or without them. "You should hurry," Olette advised, "and get your tickets."

"Right!" Sora agreed hastily, and walked over to the dark ticket booth. He leaned in and peered into the dark space, and said, "Four tickets please!" He then reached into his pocket and pulled out the pouch that the King had given him.

"Huh?" Olette mumbled, peering at the pouch.

"What is it?" Donald asked. Olette said nothing more, but simply brought out her own pouch from her own back pocket. The color, fabric, and design were exactly alike.

"They're the same," Goofy noted.

Olette nodded. "Yeah!" she exclaimed, trying to get her concern across.

Sora glanced once more at the pouch, and then shrugged off the worry. He pulled out the required munny from the pouch (after a brief pause for shock – there was 5000 munny inside!), paid for the tickets, and then looked up toward the train. He then paused and frowned. There were two trains up in the station itself; one was the normal orange that was native to the town, and the other was bright blue with a pattern of golden celestial bodies like stars and moons.

"I can't help feeling," Sora admitted, "like we won't see this town again..."

Hayner, Pence, and Olette noticed this remark, and gave Alexander a questioning look. Alex cowered under their gazes.

Oblivious to that silent exchange, Donald asked, "Why not?"

"You're thinkin' too much," Goofy said with a bit of mockery in his voice.

Sora smiled. "Yeah, you're right!"

The trio walked up the stairs toward the train, and Hayner and the others turned toward Alex. "So, Alex," Hayner said, keeping his voice relatively low, "who are those guys? I mean, we know their names, but how do they fit into all this?"

Alex sighed and gave the trio a single glance before looking back at Hayner. "They're the game's main protagonists. Sora's the main playable character. Just about everything that happens in this game revolves around him and the people he meets."

Olette nodded, but kept her frown. "Alright, but why all the hush around them?"

"Same as it was for you guys," Alexander admitted. "If I'd told you guys right off the bat that you all were part of a video game I'd somehow mysteriously stumbled into..."

"We'd think you were off your rocker," Pence finished with a small laugh.

Hayner stared at Sora for a few more moments, watching the protagonist chat amongst the Disney characters. "But... why does he look so familiar?"

Pence nodded in agreement, as did Olette. "Yeah," she said, "I saw some drawings of him and some other guy in the white room of the mansion. And... well..." It seemed that she couldn't quite find the words for it.

Alexander sighed once more. "It's kind of hard to explain," he said, though it was somewhat a lie. "I guess, somehow, he met you in some other state of existence, and your hearts are making those connections again."

"Our hearts?" Hayner echoed disbelievingly, quirking an eyebrow.

Alex shrugged. "The game is called Kingdom Hearts, after all. Hearts are the key element in how these worlds seem to work. It might not be all that far-fetched."

"Hey!" Sora called out to them, waving. "Alex! C'mon!"

Alex, Hayner, Pence, and Olette ran up the stairs and joined up with Sora, Donald, and Goofy. The door to the mysterious train was open. Sora looked toward his friends and said, "Okay, let's go!" As Donald and Goofy boarded the train, Sora looked back at Hayner, Pence, and Olette. "Bye."

As Alexander stood next to Sora, Hayner placed a hand on his chin asked, "Hey, Sora. You _sure_ we haven't met before?"

Sora thought about it for a few seconds, but no flash of insight crossed his expression. "Positive," he assured him. "Why do you ask?"

Hayner and the others gave Alex a glance, but then the boy smirked and shook his head. "I dunno," he admitted.

Sora smiled back, and a tear came streaking down from his right eye. This caught all of the others by surprise. "Huh?" Sora mumbled as he did his best to wipe it away.

"You okay?" Olette asked worriedly.

"Y-yeah," Sora replied, obviously baffled. "Don't know where it came from."

Hayner chuckled. "Pull it together," he scoffed.

Sora finally straightened himself up and nodded. "Right... See ya." He then ran back onto the train to join Donald and Goofy.

It was just Alex and his friends left. Alex sighed one more time and gave the station a parting glance. "Wow..." he muttered. "Hard to believe I've made it this far." Looking at his friends, he said, "Y'know... It's been fun so far."

Pence shrugged and smiled. "Yeah, I guess it was. You're gonna be coming back, right?"

Alexander nodded. "Definitely. I promise." With that parting remark, he moved toward the train. He hesitated for a moment, mulling over the implications of where these steps would take him. But he finally took the last few steps, and boarded the train. He looked back just in time to see the door close behind him, blocking out his approaching friends.

Hayner, Pence, and Olette watched as the train slowly accelerated and sped out of the station, carrying their new friends away from Twilight Town.

* * *

A couple minutes went by in silence as the four of them watched the landscape roll by through the high windows of the train. Sora leaned against the door of the train to watch through the large square windows. Donald was hanging from the ledge of one window to look, while Goofy was leaning to the side.

Alexander had taken a seat at the far end of the train, somewhat distancing himself from the others. It was really weird, being in this kind of situation. And he really missed his friends, too. His hand strayed toward his pocket, where the blue crystal from the Struggle trophy was. Turning away from the others, Alex pulled out the spherical crystal from his pocket and gazed at it. A small speck of star-shaped sunlight was pouring in through the window opposite of him, which now reflected off of the clear blue crystal.

Alexander admired the crystal for a few moments, and then put it back into his pocket discreetly. He turned back toward the others to see Sora admiring a crystal that was almost exactly the same as Alex's. This startled Alexander for a moment, but he then realized that he'd gotten it from the copy of Olette's pouch.

"You know..." Sora muttered, breaking the long silence that had descended on them. "I'm sad."

Donald jumped back down from the window, and Alex scooted closer toward the main group. "We'll be back," Donald assured Sora.

"Yeah," Goofy agreed. "We can visit Hayner and those guys again."

Alexander nodded and leaned back in his seat. "Yeah. It'll be good to see my friends again."

All eyes turned to Alexander once more, and suddenly Alex felt nervous again. "So, Alex," Donald asked, his tone confirming Alex's fears, "we've got a few questions to ask you."

Alex slumped in his seat. "Alright. Go ahead."

"How do you know about the worlds!?" Donald shouted with a little jump, making everyone else jump in surprise as well. Apparently, Donald wasn't going to wait for any more delays.

Alex was surprised. And a little embarrassed. "Oh, um... Did I say 'world' back there?"

"Yeah, you sure did," Sora replied as he walked over to them. "You apparently know more than you've been letting on so far. Just how much _do_ you know?"

"And why did the King know **you**?" Goofy asked curiously.

Alexander shuffled up against the wall of the train as this barrage of questions threatened to continue, and he held up his hands frantically. "Woah, woah! Hold it!" he shouted. "Just give me a sec!"

The trio, to Alex's mild surprise, waited patiently as Alex reoriented himself and prepared to explain. "Well," Alex began, "I'll admit that I know more than any normal person should. But, to be honest, I don't really know... well, _why_ I'm here."

It looked like more questions were about to be asked, but Alex held up a hand and quickly went on. "As for the King, I actually haven't met him before now. Heard of him, sure," he added, lying through his teeth, "but never met personally. So how the heck he knows **me** is a mystery to me as well." He sighed and shook his head. "There's a few questions I want answered as well. And I hope that I'll be able to get them answered where we're going."

"Where _are_ we going?" Donald asked vehemently, but was cut off by a bright flash all around the train. Light shot through the windows for a second, and what was revealed was no longer the twilit buildings of Twilight Town rolling by, but now a fascinating starry landscape of various bright colors. The train rumbled along tracks in the middle of space, appearing to be made of simply green energy.

It was the most bizarre sight Alex had witnessed in his life. The trio behind him, of course, weren't nearly as astonished. They were the adventurers; they were used to this. This thought occurred to Alex rather pointedly, and he dropped from the window to slump in his seat once again.

* * *

After a span of time spent in silence, another flash of light enveloped the train for a second, and the mysterious vehicle began to slow down. Alex turned around and got onto his knees on his seat to look out the window. The train came to a complete stop next to a large island, floating in the middle of the space around them.

The doors to the train opened up on one side, and the quartet slowly exited onto the land below. Alex did his best to ignore the inch of space between the floating land and the edge of the train, because that simply revealed the nearly boundless space in that direction.

Physical eternity did nasty things to the mind of the acrophobic.

As soon as he was on solid ground, Alex looked up. At the far end of the island was a large, tall, strangely-built tower. The tower didn't remain vertical the entire way off, and instead branched off to the side a couple of times. And frankly, the vertigo from looking up made Alex even more uncomfortable. He was _**way**_ out of his element.

To his side, Sora chuckled nervously. "There goes our ride..."

Alex looked at him, and then back at their train. Or, at least, the spot their train had once occupied. It had disappeared entirely. While it was strange to say the least, Alex was reassured by the knowledge he had. "Don't worry," he said to the protagonist. "We're fine where we are. ...As long as we watch our step." He started walking after Donald and Goofy, who had gone on ahead.

Sora gave him a questioning look. "How do you know that?"

Alexander stopped walking and sighed again. "Look, I explained as much as I could on the way _here_. I don't know all about it myself." Resuming his pace, he said, "Let's just keep moving."

At this, Sora hesitated, but then shrugged and followed along as well. They came up to the base of the tower, at the bottom of a wide staircase leading up to a tall, ornate set of doors. But the entrance was already occupied. There was an absurdly large figure wearing a dark blue jumpsuit of sorts with red trim. It was peeking through the door in a spying manner with the door only opened a crack.

"What's goin' on?" Donald asked slowly.

The large man there let out a devious laugh in a deep voice. "Hehehe... I sent some of my lackeys inside to see if the master of this here tower's as big and tough as they say," he said, without turning toward them at all. His head lifted slightly, though, revealing dark hair all over his head, adorned with two large cat-like ears at the top. Clearly not human. Alex already knew _that_, but this was his first time seeing this person in reality.

"Word is," the large stranger went on, "he's a real powerful sorcerer. Which would make him the perfect bodyguard for me. See, it doesn't matter how tough he is – once he's a Heartless, he'll do as I say!"

Sora, Donald, and Goofy flinched, and took fighting stances. "A _Heartless_!?" Donald echoed incredulously.

"That's right," the stranger chimed in. "They're those things that come outta the darkness in folks' hearts. Why, with all those Heartless at her side, my dear friend Maleficent is gonna conquer everything!"

The trio straightened up from their stances and looked at each other curiously. Alexander smirked and let out a little chuckle. "You're not very smart, are you? You don't seem to have thought this through much."

"Not much to it," the big guy said, a little annoyance in his tone. "I've got me a debt to pay, I'm goin' round to a bunch of different worlds and buildin' an _army_ of Heartless, special for her." With a backward shake of a fist, he said, "Why am I talkin' to you pipsqueaks anyway? Go on, scram! I'm behind schedule as it is."

Alex shrugged. "Well, as I said, haven't thought it through very much. Let's see, you've apparently forgotten that... simple Shadow and Soldier types aren't much good against a powerful sorcerer, and... the Heartless aren't too particular about who they work for, and..."

Goofy cut in. "Point is, you oughta find somethin' nicer to do."

At last, the man turned around to reveal a large, familiar face. "Says who?" Recognition immediately struck, and the reaction was stunning. "Wha...**aaah**! It's you!"

"Pete!?" Donald and Goofy declared simultaneously.

Pete pointed angrily at the two fellow Disney characters. "What are you two nimrods doin' here!?"

"What are **you** doing here!?" Donald countered.

Sora looked to his two companions with a confused look. "You know him?" he asked incredulously.

Goofy looked back at Sora with a worried expression. "We sure do! Pete's been causin' trouble for ages! His Majesty banished him to another dimension a long time ago. I wonder how he escaped."

"Mwehehehahaha!" Pete laughed with evil glee. "You wanna know how, eh? Well, Maleficent busted me out, that's how! And know your world – no, no, no, _all_ the worlds – are gonna belong to yours truly."

Alexander cleared his throat pointedly to cut Pete off. "Like I said," he said slowly and clearly, "you've also forgotten one more thing. The fact that Maleficent was toasted nearly a whole _year_ ago."

"Huh?" Pete gasped.

"_Huh?!_" Sora, Donald, and Goofy exclaimed, all of them looking toward Alex. With a fair bit of confidence in the last statement, Alex managed to not cower under their gazes this time.

It suddenly hit the antagonist. "You!!" Pete declared, pointing at them. "So _you're_ the ones that did it!"

Alex held up his hands. "Hey, not me. Them."

"Hey!" Sora whined.

Pete growled angrily, and then looked toward both sides of the staircase. "Heartless Squad!" he called out. "Round up!" At his call, several dark shapes crawled along the ground on either side of the stairs, and rose up to reveal themselves as Shadow Heartless.

Donald brought out his staff, Goofy took out his shield, Sora summoned his Keyblade, and Alex called forth his Lockshield. Alex looked around, and saw three Shadows on each side. Not too many, he thought.

Alexander rushed toward one side to attack the weak Heartless enemies. The duck behind him raised his staff to the air and let out a cry, and a bolt of lightning zapped two of the Heartless and destroyed them instantly. Alex almost stopped in his tracks in surprise. That magic was powerful!

Goofy charged toward the other side along with Sora. With his momentum and his shield in front, Goofy slammed through a couple of Shadows without even slowing down. Sora then followed up and slashed through the remaining one, and then spun around to whack the two that Goofy had knocked aside. Another two of them went down.

Sora swiped at the last Shadow on his side, but it flattened out to avoid the attack and quickly moved toward the other side. Alexander slashed the one Shadow he was already facing with the edge of his shield, and crushed it against the ground to destroy it. He almost didn't notice the other Shadow rising behind him, but Donald let loose another Thunder spell before it could hit. The bolt startled Alex a bit since it was right behind him, but he was otherwise fine.

It hadn't even taken a minute. Pete, who had been watching from the sidelines, jumped in place madly. "Just you wait! Nobody, and I do mean nobody, messes with the mighty Pete!"

"Nobody, huh?" Alex mused, letting his Lockshield dissipate into darkness. It was almost a prophetic statement if you took that word into a different context.

"So, 'mighty' Pete," Sora said in an openly mocking tone, "who lives in this tower, anyway?"

Pete faltered a little, apparently not expecting that kind of question. "Oh, ya don't know, eh? Well, it's old Yen Sid. 'Course he's probably a Heartless by now."

Alex rolled his eyes. "I'll say it again. Shadows versus a powerful wizard? Not exactly what I'd call good odds."

Donald, however, was ecstatic. "Master Yen Sid lives here!?" he quacked excitedly, and immediately dashed toward the door.

As the others looked after him, Goofy explained, "Yen Sid is the King's teacher!"

Sora was openly impressed. "Wow. Sounds powerful!" Goofy nodded, and the two of them ran up the stairs after Donald.

As a parting remark, Alex said to Pete, "Probably a lot more powerful than the blundering bloke here," before running through the door as well. It worked exactly as he wanted it to; Pete started to bounce angrily.

* * *

Goofy closed the door behind him, and Donald rounded on Alex again. He still seemed excited, but some of his anger had returned. "So you know about our fight with Maleficent, too?" he asked in his raspy voice.

Sora nodded. "Why'd you say it was a whole year ago?"

Alexander groaned loudly and held a hand to his forehead. "Good grief! I already said it. I do know a lot of these key details, but there's a lot **about** how I know that I _don't_ know. I'm hoping that the wizard in this tower might be able to answer some of those questions, so just wait until then."

Goofy hummed thoughtfully for a moment, and then walked toward Alex. "Well, I think there's a question you can answer for us. ...Can I see your shield for a moment?"

Alexander was a bit surprised by this, but he eventually held out his hand and summoned his shield out of the dark mist. "Sure, go ahead," he said, holding it out to Goofy.

The Disney character took the Lockshield, and also brought out his own shield. He studied the two defensive weapons carefully, with an authoritative air around him that was almost uncharacteristic for him. He seemed to weigh them in his hands for a few moments, and then said, "Well, from what I can tell, your shield is a bit smaller and lighter than mine. And then there's that blade around the edge, so it seems better made for attacking. But the shape and curve are mostly the same."

Donald's eyes were a little wider. Goofy the Expert was not three words he often put together. Looking at the shield in Goofy's hands, he narrowed his eyes again. He pointed at the insignia in the middle, and muttered, "We've seen this mark on the Heartless, right?"

Sora also peered at the shield, and pointed at the very center of the weapon. "What's this keyhole here for?"

Feeling rather protective of his weapon, Alex reached in and pulled the shield away. "Alright, alright. It's called the Lockshield. Sounds kinda like the Keyblade, I know. That's because it _**is**_ kinda like the Keyblade. Except it's dark where the Keyblade is light, hence the Heartless symbol. And it has the keyhole because it's sorta like a lock, while the Keyblade is a key."

It was a bit to digest, but the trio slowly came around to it. "Lockshield, huh?" Sora mumbled, sounding honestly intrigued. "So, equals and opposites, basically?"

"That's the idea," Alexander said, nodding as he let the shield fade into darkness. He did notice, with a bit of relief, that they weren't questioning his knowledge of the Keyblade. "But that's pretty much all I know. I'm pretty sure there's more to it, but... well, I'm hoping that Yen Sid can help me out here. I've only had the thing for five or six days now."

The trio's eyes widened in disbelief. "Six days!?" Goofy exclaimed. "You've been fighting for only that long?"

Alex glanced to the side and rubbed the back of his neck. "And that's just about all the experience I have. From the battles we've been in so far, it seems you guys have a lot more experience and skill than I do. Heck, I'm pretty much just learning."

Donald almost smirked, and started walking toward the winding staircase that started on the other side of the circular room. "We were there too, Alex. We could tell."

Sora and Goofy had a little laugh at Alex's expense, and the young man sighed and rolled his eyes. "Well, let's get going anyway. It's either forward or back toward Pete."

The quartet moved toward the stairs, but they didn't get too far before they came to an anomaly. A few feet up, there was a bright, transparent portal of many colors in the way of the stairs. Donald moved through it, almost as if he didn't notice, and disappeared through it. Sora and Goofy followed through as well without missing a beat, disappearing through the portal as well.

It was a strange sight to Alexander, but he managed to calm himself. He was going to be seeing these kinds of things a lot, he reckoned. After a moment's hesitation, he walked into the bright portal as well.

He exited onto a bright blue staircase, suspended in the middle of a gigantic space. The trio of protagonists were already a ways up the staircase, but Alex took the time to look around at the spectacle. Though as amazing as it was, he took it with a grain of salt. Why was it so common among wizards to have larger interior spaces within small exterior packages? It was amazing, and a truly handy piece of work, but it was starting to become a little cliché.

"Alex, Heartless!" Donald cried out from up ahead, and Alex dashed up the stairs the best he could. The game made it look deceptively simple, but fighting on the stairs was actually fairly complicated. Especially for someone with acrophobia, who didn't balance so well. Only three Shadows had appeared in front of them, but Alex would still have a bit of trouble.

* * *

The quartet moved up through the tower, fighting Heartless along the way. After the first staircase they entered a room called the Star Chamber, in which they fought a sizable multitude of Shadows. They then climbed some more stairs, fought more Heartless, and moved up to the Moon Chamber. There, they fought a couple of a relatively new type of Heartless: Soldiers. They were only new in that they hadn't faced any over the course of their adventure up to this point, but it was still something to be noted.

Once again, Alex was surprised by the scale of things in reality. The game made the Heartless look small, but in reality the basic Soldier types, at their full height, were only a couple of inches shorter than Alex or Sora. They weren't too difficult too defeat between the four of them, but Alex still found the experience rather disillusioning.

After that battle was done and over with, Donald put away his staff and stomped a webbed foot angrily. "Heartless, Heartless, Heartless!" he complained. "Things haven't changed one bit!"

Goofy shrugged. "Well, it's a good thing we're on the job, then."

Sora looked fairly confused by all of this. Then again, that had been his primary expression throughout most of the trip so far. "So... the worlds aren't at peace after all?" he asked, looking toward the door on the other side of the room with the flashing upward arrow.

Alexander took a deep breath, still not used to the rapid-fire frequency of battles, and shook his head. "No, of course not." When everyone instantly shot meaningful looks at him, he held up his hands defensively. "Again, Yen Sid should be able to explain."

* * *

The quartet climbed the final staircase and walked through the door. Seeing what was inside, Donald and Goofy dashed forward and assumed straight, tall, and regal positions in presentation. Sora simply waltzed – for a lack of a better word – inside and joined his friends.

As Donald and Goofy bowed, Alex took in his surroundings quickly. They were at the top of the tower, if the starry view through the moon-shaped window on the other side of the room was any indication. There were many containers along the outside of the room, as well as shelves filled with books. In the center of the room was a desk with a few items on it, and a tall chair was behind it.

And the current occupant of that chair was easily recognizable for anyone who had watched _Fantasia_. Blue robes and a matching, pointed wizard's hat, an old and authoritative face with a long, gray beard.

"Master Yen Sid!" Donald proclaimed, still bowed before the wizard. "It's an honor!"

Sora, not completely catching the formality, simply waved and said, "Hey there!"

Alex tried to get a greeting out as well, but Donald and Goofy looked up at their leader in near-horror. "Sora!" Donald scolded. "Show some respect!"

Yen Sid made a gesture to lower their voices, showing the subtext that he didn't mind the informality. Looking toward the Keyblade Master, he said, "So, you are Sora. Now then, have you seen the King yet?"

"Yes, we did, Master," Goofy replied quickly. "But we didn't get a chance to talk to him."

The wizard took on a more thoughtful look at this. "Yes..." he mumbled, "the King has been quite busy of late. Therefore, it would seem that the task of instructing you four falls upon _my_ shoulders. You have a perilous journey ahead of you. You must be well prepared."

Sora became a little crestfallen at this. "You mean... we have to go on another quest?" he asked tentatively. "I was looking forward to finding my friend Riku, so we could go back to the islands."

"Yes," Yen Sid replied evenly, "I know. However, everything in your journey, Sora, is connected. Whether you will find your way home to the islands... Whether you will return alone or with your friend... And, whether or not the islands will still be there. And the key that connects them all," he finished, "is you, Sora."

Sora hesitantly pointed at himself, grasping at straws to figure out what the meaning was. "I'm... the key?" He glanced down at his hand, and slowly held it out. In a flash of light, the Keyblade appeared in Sora's hand.

"Chosen wielder of the Keyblade!" Yen Sid recited. "You are the key that will open the door to light."

The protagonist nodded meaningfully. But, at that moment, Alex moved up from where he had been standing and said, "Um, I don't mean to be rude, but haven't we generally covered all this stuff before? I'm pretty sure there's a lot more pressing topics to cover..."

Yen Sid shook his head slowly. "Patience, Alexander. Before we can move on, we must make sure that we are clear about who we are... and what role we play in the times to come. If the knowledge you require isn't given with clarity, it may lie to you further down the path."

After a moment, the wizard waved a hand forward, and a large tome appeared over the desk in a flash of light and smoke. As the book settled onto their side of the desk, Yen Sid stated, "This book contains valuable knowledge you will need for your journey. Study it carefully. Once you have finished, we will speak of the enemies you will surely confront."

Alexander stepped toward the book, which had automatically opened up to the few particular pages they were supposed to read. Being the fan of the game he was, he decided this information was better off not gone to waste, so he began to read the passages silently to himself:

_"The Beginning"_

_Each journey gives rise to chance encounters, and each encounter brings forth a farewell. When a farewell leads to a journey, the worlds open their hearts. Those chosen by the light, or ensnared by darkness. Friends who share the same bonds, though their paths may differ. When you doubt the path trod thus far, when the hand you held is lost to you, gaze anew at the heart that once was... for all the answers are within.  
_

_"Interlude"_

_A long dream. A sad farewell, hanging in the air in that "world between." What is reality? What is illusion? The path chosen by the young boy leads to his memories. When caught in the stream of the days and nights going past, gaze anew at your steps... for there all confusion will end.  
_

_"The Future Story"_

_Will the day come that this battle, born of confusion, will end? It is different things to different people. Can the reality be that which is hidden? The reason is mere existence. Still, memories can be believed. Be not afraid. Entrust your body to the soothing waves of your memories. By and by, your fleeting rest will be over... and everything will begin.  
_

Alexander regarded the book curiously as he reached the end of the last passage. He squinted a little at it, and finally said, "It's sorta relevant... but not completely. Philosophy if nothing else."

"But wait a sec," Sora cut in, seeing the opportunity for answers. "How come the Heartless are still running around?" Donald and Goofy nodded to emphasize the importance of this particular question.

Yen Sid slowly replied, "Your past endeavors did prevent an immense effusion of Heartless from the great darkness; make no mistake about that. However, the Heartless are darkness made real – and darkness yet lingers in every heart. The Heartless are fewer. But while darkness exists in a single heart, it will be difficult to eliminate them."

Sora, Donald, and Goofy all slumped and hung their heads in dismay. This was exactly the news they didn't want to hear. It made the extermination of the Heartless an endless task at this point.

"Gawrsh," Goofy realized, "that must mean... if everybody's heart was full of light, them Heartless'd go away!"

Yen Sid nodded silently at this, and then brought up a new topic. "Now it is time to speak of the enemies that you will encounter." Looking toward Sora, he said, "While I could make clear what enemies you'll confront, I believe you already possess a document that could inform you of some. And your new companion will be able to clarify if it is necessary."

Sora jumped a little in surprise and pulled out the report Olette had given him. Alex was surprised twice over. Once for Yen Sid's statement, and the second because Sora was holding his friends' Nobody report!

Donald and Goofy leaned toward Sora as the protagonist began to read:

_Everyone who was at the Struggle this year knows about the Nobodies. Who could forget the strange white creatures that appeared before the title match, and the equally strange man in the black coat who seemed to be leading them? Well, as it turns out, both of them belonged to the same phenomenon. They were all Nobodies. But just what are Nobodies?_

_Life in general is made up of the body, soul, and heart. And by the last one, we don't mean the organ that pumps blood through the body. We mean the metaphysical heart, the one where all our feelings and emotions come from. Some feelings we get are darker than others, and many times that's a bad thing. Sometimes hearts get too much darkness, and they end up tearing themselves away from the body and soul and let themselves be consumed._

"That's pretty much how Heartless come about, right?" Goofy confirmed as Sora got to that last sentence. The others nodded, and Sora continued reading:

_So the heart leaves the body and soul, and then what? What do those remaining parts do without the heart – the basis of their existence? Well, most of the time those two elements simply fade into nothingness. But sometimes the body and soul of those now-heartless people were really strong-willed. Strong enough of will to start moving on their own, independent of the heart. This is how Nobodies are made._

_Nobodies are far from human, even though the most human-looking of them pretend to be. They can think and plan, but they're cold-blooded and emotionless. Most of them don't even look like humans. The most common ones, called Dusks, were the creatures that attacked during the Struggle._

_But the human-like ones, the ones in the black coats, are the most powerful Nobodies. Among the Nobodies there is a group called Organization XIII, which is the group that basically controls all the Nobodies' actions. It's hard to say what they're after, or why they even continue existing, but it's clear that they give little care to the wellbeing of anyone in their way. And the people in their way are usually the ones affiliated with people that can fight the Nobodies. People like Alexander._

The report ended there, and Sora looked over to Alex. The boy shrugged and said, "People with magical weapons like the Lockshield or Keyblade."

A flash of light appeared behind the group, and all four of them looked back to see three pillars of light beaming up from the floor in a row. Within those beams of light were three Dusks simply standing there. It was obviously an illusion, but the group was still startled for a moment.

Yen Sid retracted his casting hand. "These are the Dusks that were described in the document. Indeed, the most common form of Nobody." He waved his hand again, and the pillars of light flashed once again. Now three figures in black Organization cloaks stood within the light. "And this is the appearance of those who lead Organization XIII, which commands the lesser Nobodies."

Sora frowned. "Organization XIII..." he echoed. He looked toward his two traveling companions, who shook their heads in response to his unspoken question.

"Keep in mind," Yen Sid advised, "that Heartless act on instinct, while Nobodies function in a higher manner. They plan, and seem to be working toward a goal. What that goal is, we do not know."

Alex did his best to keep a straight face.

"The King sensed the danger," Yen Sid continued, "and journeyed forth to fight it. He found the dark realm's Keyblade, and with it, closed the door. Now he's traveling from world to world, fighting the Heartless as he seeks to answer the riddle of the Nobodies and Organization XIII." Behind the party, the images of the Organization members slowly faded away.

"Then I guess we better go find the King first!" Sora declared.

"But where could he be?" Donald asked, immediately seeing the flaw in their plan.

"Well, we won't know 'til we look," Goofy offered.

"Yeah," Sora agreed, back to his cheery self. "And the King must know where Riku is, 'cause the two of them were in the realm of darkness when we closed the door. You know, after defeating Ansem."

Alexander sighed. While all this talk was encouraging to the adventurers, it did him little good. He still didn't know what was going on. Hesitant to take initiative this time, he approached the wizard's desk and stared at the occupant in front of him. He took a deep breath, and finally said, "I can't help but notice... that you seem to know why I'm _here_, and... well..."

Yen Sid nodded once more. "Ah, yes, indeed. It is time to explain to you what role you play in the times to come."

Donald caught this, and the rest of the party turned toward Alex. "Yeah," the duck rasped, "why are you here, anyway?"

"Alexander," the wizard began, "is from a universe completely separate to ours. This world, from his perspective, was merely a form of interactive entertainment. A roleplaying game, if you will. Quite simply, this universe didn't begin to exist before Alex interfered."

Everyone jumped back with immense surprise, including Alexander. Sora quickly recovered and ran up to the desk, shouting, "Only a game!?"

Yen Sid held a hand up, a gesture for Sora to keep his distance. "Indeed. It does not matter now, but your journey up to this point was chronicled in those games that were distributed to not only Alexander, but to every other player in the real world."

The terror at this was starting to show on the trio's faces, and glances were being shot in Alexander's direction. Truth be told, Alex's reaction wasn't much better. He hadn't expected one of the game characters to know so much and say it so bluntly. So he was just as flabbergasted as the others.

Noticing this distress, Yen Sid continued, "Do not let this worry you. As of Alexander's entrance into this universe, we all exist on the same foundation in reality as _he_ does. It is important to realize where you've come from, but it means little about you now."

Yen Sid shifted his gaze toward the newcomer himself, who immediately straightened his posture. Yen Sid said, "All this truly means is that Alex will be able to aid you, using the information he's gained from the experiences you are about to face. He will be able to predict the future directly pertaining to you and your travels, so I suggest you listen."

Sora, Donald, and Goofy slowly calmed down. It was a lot to swallow, but Yen Sid's words were beginning to show them the sense in all the madness. Alex, however, still had questions. He glanced at his shoes for a moment, but then looked up and said, "But... what about me? How did I get here if it was just a game before? And what about the–?"

"Your heart created a connection," the wizard stated, cutting Alex off abruptly, "which brought the universe into existence and drew you into it." He paused for a moment. "I do not claim to know what thought or feeling caused such a stirring in your heart, Alexander, but you believed in the power of the heart strongly enough to feel some sort of connection here. As for your weapon..."

At this, Alexander held out his hand and summoned the Lockshield out of the darkness. Everyone regarded it scrutinizingly. "The Lockshield is a weapon created from the darkness of your heart, Alexander," Yen Sid declared. "I do not know why it was your darkness that was chosen, nor why it manifested in such a form so similar to and yet opposite from the Keyblade. Perhaps you sacrificed some light in your heart to create this reality, or maybe darkness held such a principle place in your heart to begin with. Whatever the reason, the fact remains that the martial art is critical to facing the challenges ahead, and so your heart created this weapon so that you may utilize it."

Alexander nodded firmly at this, and then looked at his shield. Suddenly, he faltered, "Yeah, but I'm not so good at using it. At least the others have some inherent skill in fighting. I've been battling off and on for five days. Not exactly impressive."

Goofy frowned a little, but then tried to be cheerful again. "Yeah, but you've got information that the none of us got. Lots of it! Maybe that's why the King told you to come with us – so that you could tell us what you know!"

Alex brightened up a little. The duck beside him wasn't so cheery, but he looked up at the boy and said, "So how much do these games show, Alex?"

The boy thought about it for a moment. "Well... for you, it started at the moment you discovered that the King had disappeared from Disney Castle." Glancing over at the main protagonist, "For you, Sora, that'd be about a couple of days before your world had first been destroyed by the Heartless. From there," he said, facing the general group, "it follows Sora pretty closely through all of your battles right up until you sealed up the door to darkness. That's the first game, called Kingdom Hearts."

Sora did a take. "Hold on... It's a** series**!?"

Alex grinned a little at this reaction. "Yep. The chronicle we're in right now is Kingdom Hearts II, which is the third game of the series."

The trio glanced at each other for a moment, and Goofy said, "The number 2 is the _third_ game?"

Alexander faltered a little. He'd let that slip. "Well... yeah. Um, remember how I mentioned that your last adventure happened a year ago? Well, there was actually a game inbetween the two, called Chain of Memories. You don't remember it, and that's 'cause you aren't supposed to."

Sora folded his arms, and Yen Sid watched patiently. "Chain of Memories, huh?" Sora echoed. "What happened to us in that?"

The slightly younger boy rubbed the back of his neck as he did his best to remember those details. "Well, shortly after you sealed the door to darkness, you came across a castle. Castle Oblivion. Little did you guys know, it was an outpost of Organization XIII, where they were waiting for you with a girl named Naminé."

The name from Jiminy's notebook startled all of them. "So that's Naminé," Donald mused once he'd recovered. "Who is she, really? Did we meet her?"

"She's Kairi's Nobody," Alex said nonchalantly.

He then realized his mistake as Sora reacted violently. He suddenly found the protagonist's face right in his own. "Kairi has a Nobody!?" Sora exclaimed.

Lightly pushing Sora away, Alex quickly said, "You had to _return_ her heart in Hollow Bastion, remember? She'd been Heartless for a while!" He straightened himself a little, and said, "Naminé's not like any normal Nobody, but I'm not going to get into that. Don't completely understand it myself. ...Anyway, she had – or still has, maybe – this weird ability to change the memories of you and everyone affiliated with you. And the Organization forced her to do that as soon as you walked into Castle Oblivion."

"Our memories were tampered with!?" Goofy exclaimed.

Alex nodded. "The Organization's plan was to change your affection toward Kairi to affection toward Naminé. That way, they could blackmail you into doing their bidding for them by threatening to harm her. They were trying to overthrow their superiors, I think. Almost worked, too. You completely forgot Kairi, and you were willing to do anything to save Naminé. Donald and Goofy lost their memories along with you."

"Wow..." Donald gasped, shocked by this information. It was, all in all, a very tall tale indeed. But after being with Alex for a while, he saw that the kid just didn't seem to have enough guts to lie to them. Avoid information, perhaps, but not lie. So he had no reason not to believe him. When the duck brought his lower beak back up, he asked, "So what did we do?"

"Better than what they expected," Alex admitted with a small smile. "You took all of the members that had been stationed at Castle Oblivion, and finally rescued Naminé. By that point, though, your memories were so jumbled up that it would take a lot of time to repair it. A whole year. So she put you three into stasis and worked diligently on you three up until this point." He gestured at their surroundings, and added, "And here we are."

"And we don't remember it," Sora reminded him, "because...?"

"Because memories are like a chain," Alexander replied with a frown. "She added a few links to it and removed others in order to tamper with your memories. To reverse that, she had to take out the links she'd put in, including all of the ones involving her and your experience at Castle Oblivion. ...But at least you remember your first adventure now."

Sora took a deep breath as he processed all of this information. "Wow... I guess we missed a lot..." He suddenly blinked and started to panic. "That means we'd better get out there! Everyone's missed us for a whole year!"

Donald panicked to an even greater degree than Sora. "Ack! Daisy!! What'll she say!?"

Goofy's eyes widened. "And Pete's been buildin' up an army of Heartless for who knows how long!"

Yen Sid nodded, and then gestured toward the large, green, ornate door on the right side of the room. "So, before you go, you will need more suitable traveling clothes. Those look a bit too small for you," he added, showing the slightest hint of a sense of humor as he gestured at Sora's attire.

Alex glanced away. He'd forced himself to ignore it up to this point, but Sora's clothes from his previous adventure looked two or three sizes too small for him. Donald and Goofy began to crack up a little.

"Through there," Yen Sid explained with a ghost of a smile, "you'll find three good fairies. If you ask, they'll create for you appropriate garments."

Goofy was clutching his stomach as Sora checked himself and his proportions. "Gawrsh, Sora, you've done a lot of growin' this year!"

Sora tugged on his tunic and sighed. "Uh, I guess..." he said, and then hung his head in embarrassment.

* * *

Sora, Donald, and Goofy walked into the room ahead, but Yen Sid had told Alexander to stay. As the door closed behind the trio, Alex looked at the wizard and asked, "Why don't I go in with them?"

"There is no need to bore you," the wizard replied, "with details you are already aware of."

Alex nodded in reply to this. He knew what Sora's new outfit was already. "However," Yen Sid went on, "there is another matter which pertains to you particularly." He stood up from his chair and walked toward the moon-shaped window in the back. Alex followed him.

"I assume you already know about the gates between the worlds," Yen Sid explained. "The pathways that Sora is required to open with the Keyblade's guidance. Now I ask you: what do you know of Dark Corridors?"

Alexander perked an eyebrow. "Dark Corridors?" he echoed. He fell silent for a few moments as he contemplated. Looking back up at the wizard, he said, "I think I've read it once... in Ansem's secret report. It was some kind of dark pathway that he used to escape the realm of nothingness."

Yen Sid nodded. "These are the same that the Heartless and Nobodies use to connect themselves with each world. It is by these that they may attempt to connect to those gates between the worlds." He turned to face Alexander, and spoke in a grave tone: "Listen carefully, Alexander. Even when Sora unlocks those special gates and frees them from those monsters, they will still be able to appear in that world. And, if their behavior can be predicted, they will shortly attempt to create a massive Dark Corridor through which they can forcefully invade a world."

Alex jumped back in surprise. "What!? Invade? But... that was never in the game!"

"It is an aspect of this universe you'll have to confront," Yen Sid chided him, "now that it is a reality. But do not fear; you'll be able to stop them."

"Me?" Alex repeated. "How?"

"Through the Lockshield," Yen Sid replied. "Because of its dark affinity, you are the closest to that potential Dark Corridor. The moment will come when you will be able to seal the Dark Corridor completely with its power, and prevent the appearance of **any** Heartless or Nobody within that world."

Alexander slumped a little. Now he was vital to the survival of the worlds, somehow. It was a cool thing to be important in the universe of a game, but it was also a little daunting. Like the thought of trying to run a marathon in shoes that are too large. He shrugged, and said, "I'll see what I can do."

Yen Sid nodded. "And while you're at it," he added, "there is one more task you must focus on. The Keyholes."

Alex shot Yen Sid a look that clearly stated his malcontent at having more responsibility. "The Keyholes?"

"The gates to the hearts of the worlds," Yen Sid confirmed. "Sora did seal a great number of them in his last adventure, yet many more still await a seal from either the Keyblade or Lockshield. And I shall delegate the task to you to seal the Keyholes in worlds that are not protected yet."

Alexander straightened up again and searched through his mind. The only worlds in Kingdom Hearts II that would already have been sealed would be Olympus Coliseum, Hollow Bastion, Agrabah, Atlantica, and Halloween Town. "Well, there's only about five worlds that come to mind that are already sealed."

"Six," Yen Sid corrected him. "Twilight Town is now sealed, though you may not have realized it."

It took a while, but Alexander finally got it. "The mansion!"

At that moment, the door to the side opened up once more, and the trio walked out. Sora strode forward with more confidence than ever. He was now wearing his newer garments. They were actually quite similar in design to his previous set, but a bit more streamlined and with a couple of additions. The colors were now darker with gold and red highlights. Overall, a great look on Sora, and astounding to see in person.

Sora jabbed his thumb toward the room behind him. "Alright, Alex, you're up next."

Alex blinked. "Huh?"

Yen Sid smiled a little. "You also will need proper traveling garments for this journey. I promise, it will be of greater help to you than your current attire."

Alexander looked down at his clothes. Just his green T-shirt, blue jeans, and black sneakers. Too simple and normal for the Kingdom Hearts universe, apparently. He sighed and walked past the trio.

* * *

Alexander entered the room. It was much like the previous room, except with slightly more furniture. On the other side of the round room were three short women in bright, colorful outfits holding wands. The three good fairies from the Disney movie Sleeping Beauty.

The one in red, Flora, turned to face him as he entered. "Ah, Alexander. Good to meet you." Noticing his hesitation, she gestured for him to approach and said, "C'mon, over here!"

Staggering a little, Alex made his way over to the three good fairies, feeling more than a little uncomfortable. "Uh... So, am I getting a new outfit as well?"

"Indeed you are," Merryweather, the one in blue, replied.

"So," the green fairy, Fauna, said, "is there anything you'd like in particular. Something like Sora's perhaps?"

Alex grimaced at the question. "...Fashion's never been my strong suit," he admitted. He thought about it for a moment, and then said, "Well, just not anything too complicated or extravagant. Something that looks cool on me, but without overdoing it. Other than that, I trust you three to come up with something."

The three fairies turned to one another in conference, speaking in low tones that Alex couldn't manage to overhear. After about half a minute of it, the three finished and looked toward him. All three raised their wands, and Alex took a half-step back. "Alright," Flora declared, "and no squabbling this time!"

The wands waved, and three matching-colored beams of light flew toward Alex. The boy cried out as the beams struck him, and shielded his eyes as a bright light filled the entire room. A few moments went by in that blinding light, and he could feel his clothes make a sudden shift to another form.

The light eventually receded, and Alex was hesitant to open his eyes. Beyond his sight, the three good fairies admired their handiwork. "Not bad!" he heard Fauna say.

Alexander finally took the nerve to look down at his clothes. What he saw surprised him. He was now wearing a short-sleeved, dark red jacket with a black undershirt. Gray, fingerless gloves adorned his hands, and he also wore dark green pants which had unusually large pockets. And there were dark brown boots at his feet. Simple, yet effective. He liked it.

As he looked around, he felt the top of his head shifting around unusually. He placed a hand on his head, and was surprised again by what he felt. "Did you guys do something to my hair?" he muttered. It felt almost... spiky?

"Nevermind that," Flora said as Alex messed around with a tall spike of hair. "Now, you do already know that these aren't ordinary garments, right?"

Alex finally dropped his hand and nodded. "The Drives. Yeah, I know."

Merryweather waved her wand again, and a bright yellow orb appeared in the air in front of Alexander. "Take the orb, dear. And watch what happens."

Alex was a little daunted by the sudden appearance, but he reached for it anyway. As soon as he got within a few inches of it, the orb moved and merged into his glove. Then, all of a sudden, he felt his body move on its own as his limbs and head snapped back. Light shot forth from his body for a moment, almost to a blinding degree.

The fairies looked curiously at him for a moment, but then gasped and stepped back in fear.

The boy landed on the ground and got onto all fours. Alex's vision had taken on a slightly golden tint, and he felt that he couldn't stop twitching. He felt something flowing off of his body and evaporating into the air, and... his fingers felt like claws! He couldn't think, he couldn't breath, he couldn't move on his own...

"_**Auugh**_!" Alex cried out, and clutched at his face with his claws. He grabbed his head and willed himself to calm... to calm down. Slowly, agonizingly slowly, the strange substance began to fade away from his skin, and control returned to his body. His vision cleared, and his hands became normal. He was left breathing heavily, and he fell to his knees. "What..." he gasped, "was that...?"

The three good fairies frowned, and Fauna slowly stepped forward. "That..." She couldn't seem to bring herself to say it. "Oh, I'm so sorry..."

"It's beyond our control, dear," Flora reassured her companion. Looking toward Alex, she said, "That was Anti Form, dear. We had placed Wisdom Form in your garments to complement Sora's Valor Form, but..."

"You went into Anti Form first," Merryweather finished. She shook her head, obviously confused. "Strange... It's a glitch in the process, where traces of darkness come together to take over. But nothing like this! It never happens on the first time!"

"This is obviously a very special case," Flora decided. "Perhaps, Alexander... you might be able to use it at will, if your darkness is that strong. But it could still take over randomly when trying to use a normal Drive."

Alexander shuddered. Being in Anti Form was not pleasant. He was certain it could be very devastating for his enemies, but it wasn't exactly pleasurable. "I figured it was that," he replied. With a sidewards glance, he asked, "Do Sora's garments have that glitch?"

The three fairies looked nervous once more. "D-Don't tell Sora about it, okay?" Fauna pleaded. "I'm sure he has enough to worry about as it is. And it shouldn't happen nearly as often with him!"

Alex sighed. "Sure, whatever." Already feeling exhausted, he walked back toward the Sorcerer's Loft in his new outfit.

* * *

Finally, Alex rejoined Sora, Donald, and Goofy in the main room. The _Highwind_, the party's Gummi Ship, could be seen floating out of the moon-shaped window. Everyone looked at Alex as he approached, and Sora looked at him with a critical eye. "That's more like it," he remarked finally. "Now you look like a real adventurer!"

"What fun," Alex mumbled, the Anti Form event still on his mind.

Yen Sid looked toward the quartet as Alex joined up with his new friends. "Now then," he said finally, "that is all the information I can give to you. Go forth, Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Alexander. Everyone is waiting."

"Okay," Sora declared as the other three looked to him, "let's get going!"

Donald, Goofy, and Alex nodded, and together the four of them stood straight and faced Yen Sid one more time. "Master Yen Sid!" Donald declared.

"We sure do appreciate the help!" Goofy thanked the wizard, as the four of them saluted in turn. With that said, they immediately turned around and ran toward the door, with Alex a little late and falling behind.

Just as Alex reached the door, he stopped and looked back to see Yen Sid disappear in a column of sparkling light with a smile on his face.

* * *

**Disclaimer: I only own Alexander and the Lockshield. Every other element of this story belongs to their respective owners. Namely Square-Enix and Disney.**


	8. Reviving Hollow Bastion

Chapter 8  
Reviving Hollow Bastion

In an instant, the quartet of Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Alexander were transported into the Gummi Ship's cockpit. Sora, Donald, and Goofy moved toward the three seats in the front of the cockpit, with Sora taking the pilot position. Alexander, though, was left without a seat.

Still, it was neat to look around at what he was surrounded by. The flashing lights of the blue dashboard Sora was seated at were at the front of the small cockpit. There were several colored, flashing rings around the back of the cockpit, filling in the space between the dome above them and the floor. And beyond the ship, the green and blue space between the worlds was an absolute wonder to behold.

Suddenly, a screen appeared on the forward part of the dome, showing a video feed. It showed two small, upright chipmunks in yellow aprons with the Mickey emblem on them, standing within a small, box-like control room.

"Howdy, Sora!" the chipmunk on the right shouted, jumping into the air with excitement. "How ya doin'?"

"It's your favorite Gummi engineers here," the chipmunk on the left said, its voice at a higher pitch, "ready for duty: Chip..."

"...and Dale!" the other one finished. It was indeed Chip and Dale, communicating to them all the way from their control room in Disney Castle. Both chipmunks jumped again and shouted, "Happy flying!"

Sora leaned forward and looked out into space. The world of Twilight Town was behind their ship, and they could see one path leading out from there. Only one world was at the end of it. "Only one!?" the Keyblade Master whined.

"That's no good!" Donald agreed, also crestfallen.

"Wait!" Goofy interrupted, sounding cheerful in comparison. "I think it's a world we know!"

Alexander leaned against the back of the cockpit and said, "Yep. It's the world of Hollow Bastion, surprisingly enough. It'll act as our base of operations this time around, just like Traverse Town was for you guys in the first adventure."

The trio looked back at him with confused looks, but Sora was the first to acknowledge it and get to work. He grabbed the controls and pushed forward, sending the Gummi Ship moving through the space at a slow start.

At the back, Alex simply watched through the dome of the cockpit as the sparkling, swirling Gummi space rolled by. What a strange feeling it was, he'd decided, to be traveling from world to world like this. It most certainly wasn't like what space travel was like in the real world.

Suddenly, he noticed that he could see a faint reflection of himself in the dome. He looked at his head, settled on top of his new outfit. And on top of his head...

"**Gah**!!" Alex cried out, making the famous trio jump in surprise. "They _did_ mess with my hair!"

"Who? What!?" Sora mumbled as he stopped the ship and turned around to face Alex. His face was incredulous as Alex turned to face him. The younger boy had his hands in his absurdly spiky hair. It wasn't much of a rival to Sora's, but it was a definite change compared to his short flat style before.

"Those three good fairies," Alex muttered, settling back against the cockpit's wall in a heap. "They made my hair spiky along with changing my clothes. My hair wasn't anything _close_ to spiky before!" He looked up resignedly and added, "I look just like any other Square-Enix protagonist now..."

An awkward pause. "You look like what?" Goofy repeated after a few moments.

Alex sighed. "Square-Enix. It's the company in the real world that was mainly responsible for developing the Kingdom Hearts series of games. And, up until recently, their standard for protagonist character designs was ridiculously spiky hair. Like yours. And now mine."

Sora immediately put a hand to his head. "Wait... My hair was designed by someone? I thought it just grew out like that naturally..."

A chuckle came from Alex. That had been the last remark he'd expected to hear. "It did grow out like that, I guess. But the end result was designed. Heck, every aspect of your appearance, along with everyone else's in this universe, was designed by someone at some point."

Yet another awkward silence. Sora, at length, returned to the controls and started up the ship's engines again. As the Gummi Ship cruised forward, he said, "Wow... That's... kinda weird to think about."

"Sorry," Alex apologized. "Didn't mean to throw that on you like that. I... can't really imagine how difficult it is to know that everything around you was engineered."

But to Alex's surprise, a laugh came out of Sora in response. "Actually, my appearance being designed isn't such a bad thing."

Alex blinked. "Really?" he asked, and Donald and Goofy also joined in his confusion.

Sora looked back at him and grinned. "It means I don't have to worry about whether I'm good-looking or not. I wouldn't make a good leader in a game if I wasn't, right?"

There was a moment to let this sink in, but then everyone else in the cockpit broke into laughter. Alex had hardly any choice but to laugh; to be honest, that had been something he hadn't considered.

Finally, the Gummi Ship came to a stop. They had reached their destination. Goofy looked toward a button on the right side of the controls. A big red one labeled "Disembark". Alexander stepped forward curiously, unaware of Goofy's movements. "Alright," Goofy announced, raising his hand, "let's go!"

"Huh?" Alex mumbled. But Goofy slammed his hand down on the button, and the four adventurers disappeared in a flash of light.

* * *

At the top of a hill overlooking the small, industrial town, was the Marketplace. Various people lingered around the market square, including the odd moogle or two. Some visited the accessory, armor, and weapon shops located there.

But at the very far end was a dead-end alley. Four beams of light dropped down into that alley, and the quartet appeared in a flash of light. While Alexander remained disoriented from the sudden teleportation, Sora, Donald, and Goofy ran forward to the ledge ahead of them. It overlooked the entire town below them, and in the distance they could see the ruins of the castle they'd explored on their last visit. The castle of Hollow Bastion.

"It really **is** Hollow Bastion!" Sora exclaimed.

"Gawrsh," Goofy remarked, "it looks kinda different now."

Alexander finally recovered and walked over to them, holding the side of his head with one hand. "Did you ever doubt me?" he asked dubiously.

Donald ignored him and looked around. "I hope Leon and the gang are doing okay."

Alex scowled, but also looked around as well. As weird it had been to be in Twilight Town for the first time, it was the same being here. Going to different worlds was a remarkable experience, simply because the differences between the worlds were all too apparent.

Goofy, in his visual exploration, looked up toward the roof of the building nearest to them. There were a couple of Soldier Heartless mingling near the chimney of the building, which promptly disappeared as soon as they realized that they were noticed.

"Uh-oh," Goofy said, turning to the others. "Looks like we're gonna have to do some fightin'."

"Really?" Alex asked in tired, mock surprise. "I never would've guessed."

* * *

The group made their way through the marketplace, and walked down the long, wide flight of white stone steps down toward the town below. They first entered the long alleyway that was called the Borough, which wound between the buildings with right angles.

They pressed on until they passed under a large stone arch. Sora, at the front of the group, stopped as everyone looked around. It was obvious that they weren't quite sure where to go from there.

Suddenly, a flash of light appeared in front of Sora, startling the hero before it disappeared just as quickly. It reappeared once, as two discs of light with an orb between them, before dissipating again in segments. More of this phenomena appeared all around them, causing Donald to exclaim, "Hey, what's going on?"

Alex did a mental once-over of his Kingdom Hearts lore. "Claymores?" he mumbled.

"Yep," a young woman's voice replied from overhead, "that's the town's defense mechanism."

This also startled the trio, which exchanged glances and looked around frantically for the source of the statement. Finally, Sora managed to look up and to the left, where he saw a woman clad in a black outfit standing on a large block of stone. "Yuffie!" Sora called out to the self-proclaimed master ninja.

Alex looked up, and found himself rather surprised. A Final Fantasy cameo in the flesh! It would take some time to get used to all of these familiar faces.

Yuffie kept her grin and gave them a wave, but her look quickly changed to one of surprise and worry. "Look out!"

Sora immediately summoned the Keyblade and swung at a Dusk that had charged at him. The Dusk spun through the air and dodged the blade, but managed to also miss Sora entirely in its charge. The Nobody moved back to a safer distance as more of its kin began to appear around them. Donald and Goofy brought out their weapons as the whole group was surrounded by five Dusks, and Alex summoned the Lockshield while taking note of two Assassin Nobodies appearing outside of the circle.

Alexander swung his shield at a Dusk, which fluidly dodged the strike. He then let a reaction take over, using the Reversal to swing around the Dusk in an instant. As he Dusk looked around in a daze, Alex smashed the face of his shield into the Nobody. Donald then ran in and shouted, "_Fire_!" A small ring of fire encircled the fowl magician, burning the Dusk as well as another that was nearby. At that moment, two discs of light appeared under the two enemies, which quickly rose up into spheres and let out a small explosion.

The Claymores astonished Alex with their sudden usefulness. The first Dusk was destroyed, while the second was thrown into the air... where it was swiftly taken down by a red-clad Sora with two Keyblades. Donald and Alex blinked in surprise as Sora ran around in his Valor Form, swiping at all of the Nobodies rapidly and violently. Goofy was obviously nowhere to be seen; he had merged with Sora. Apparently, while Donald and Alex had been distracted by the Claymores, Sora had activated the Drive Form of his garments.

The remaining Dusks and Assassins moved toward Sora, who sliced through just about all of them with almost inhuman speed. Donald and Alex gave each other a glance. Suddenly, Donald smirked and said, "I think we..."

Alex suddenly got his point. He grinned back and dismissed his Lockshield. "Yeah..." he agreed, leaning against the stone wall behind him. Both Donald and Alex watched Sora decimate the rest of the Nobodies with remarkable ease.

In a few moments, it was all over. A red flash came from Sora's body, and his clothes reverted to normal. The second Keyblade, the Star Seeker, disappeared into thin air, while Goofy simply appeared next to Sora with a disoriented look on his face. Goofy shook his head a little and smiled at Sora. "Well, that was kinda fun!" he admitted.

Seeing that the battle was over, Yuffie waved from above them and shouted, "Hey, you guys!" and then made a leap off the stone block to their level. This jump startled Alex, but the others simply took it in stride. As she brushed herself off, Yuffie remarked, "I see you're still in top form."

"What'd you expect?" Sora retorted with a smile, thumping his chest with his fist. "Looks like you're doing okay."

Yuffie smirked and placed her hands on her hips. "Well, what did **you** expect?"

"How are the others?" Donald inquired quickly as he and Alex walked over to them.

"Great!" Yuffie replied. Seeing the duck and Alex approach, she looked over to the latter and said, "So, you're Alexander, huh?"

Alex did a take. That had been the last thing he'd expected. "Huh!? Uh, yeah."

Goofy looked between them for a moment, and then asked, "You guys already know about 'im?"

When Yuffie confirmed it, Sora shrugged and said, "Well, that makes things simpler," while Alex simply looked dumbfounded. "Hey, Yuffie," the Keyblade Master then said. "Have you seen the King or Riku?"

Yuffie simply turned away and replied, "Nope."

Sora hung his head and sighed heavily at this response.

Just before the self-proclaimed master ninja rounded the next corner, she turned back at them and smiled, "But I had a feeling I'd see you guys again."

Sora smiled back, but then took on a serious impression and a deep voice as he said, "_We may never meet again, but we'll never forget each other._"

Alex forgot his confusion for a moment and held back a smirk. Yuffie grinned and said, "Is that supposed to be Leon?"

Donald and Goofy cracked up at Sora's dubious impression, and Alex quickly followed suit in the expression of mirth. After a few moments of this, Yuffie cut in by saying, "Everybody's working on stuff over at Merlin's house. C'mon!"

* * *

Within Merlin's house, three figures were positioned in front of a gigantic computer terminal, with green characters flowing rapidly upward across a black screen. The middle-aged spiky blond in the center, seated at the terminal, was Cid. To his left was the long-haired brunette, Aerith, in a pink dress. On the opposite side was Leon in his white-trimmed black outfit.

Sora opened the large door and led the way into the house. As everyone regarded the three in the back of the room, Yuffie seemed to pop up from out of nowhere as she said, "Meet the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee!"

Her voice notified Cid, Aerith, and Leon, who all turned around to regard the quartet. Aerith, recognizing them instantly, put her hands together and exclaimed, "We missed you!"

Alex blinked. Aerith sounded... a bit different than what he'd been expecting. He couldn't quite place it, but... Then it hit him: Aerith's voice was the same as what it had been in the first Kingdom Hearts! In the sequel, they'd changed to a different (and, in some perspectives, worse) voice actor, but for some reason Aerith's voice had reverted in reality.

Cid chuckled and remarked, "Well, if you ain't in top shape."

Leon simply smirked and said, "I knew it."

As the quartet walked toward them, Sora looked at him quizzically and asked, "Knew what?"

"A while back," the ex-protagonist explained, "everyone suddenly remembered you guys, all at the same time."

Sora, Donald, and Goofy flinched at this information. "You... remembered?" Sora mumbled, slowly getting the implication. "Wait! Does that mean you forgot about us!?"

"Thanks!" Donald muttered angrily.

Alex, panicking a little at this misunderstanding, stepped between the two groups and held out a hand to both sides. "Wait!" he called out. Looking to the trio he was now traveling with, he said, "Sora, it was because of Naminé."

This caused no small amount of confusion. "Huh? Naminé?" Yuffie echoed.

"Right after the battle in the End of the World," Alex said quickly, looking back to the Final Fantasy cameos, "Sora and the gang went to a place called Castle Oblivion, where they had a small adventure. It's a long story, but basically it involved having Sora's memories twisted around – even erased in some cases. They spent this last year having their memories switched back."

Looking back at the trio, he added, "You three weren't the only ones forgetting stuff. Because of the connection between your hearts, everyone affiliated with you also forgot about those times. And when you remembered, they remembered as well."

Donald tilted his head to one side. "Because of our hearts?"

This caused Alex to falter a little. "Well... I can only assume. I mean, in this universe, hearts are pretty darn important, and can cause powerful things to happen in people. The games themselves are called Kingdom **Hearts**, after all."

Leon heard this and took a step toward the newbie. "So you _are_ Alexander. Merlin told us about you."

Alex looked back at Leon, and found himself a little intimidated by the cameo. Seeing this guy in person, especially knowing what he'd been, was something to deal with. Still, he did his best to stand up straight and say, "Yeah, I've heard that already. How the heck did Merlin know about me anyway?"

"Can't say for sure how," Cid answered. "Just gets up one mornin' and says that we're all part of a video game brought to life, thanks to a guy named Alex. Turns out the ol' codger was right."

"Well... more or less," Aerith cut in, sending a glare in Cid's direction. Cid and Merlin did not get along on the best of terms. "It was rather sudden, like he said, but what reason did we have to doubt him? When you think about it, some parts of it makes sense..."

Sora looked thoughtful for a moment. "Y'know, it might be the same thing with Yen Sid already knowing about you."

"Yeah, and the King!" Goofy added, nodding vigorously.

Alexander frowned, also thinking of Organization XIII's Superior. From the sound of it, it seemed that these individuals were simply given the knowledge instantly upon his arrival. Alex thought it was all too convenient. But, then again, who made the rules for this strange phenomenon, anyway?

"Anyway, it doesn't matter," Aerith decided with a small shake of the head and a smile. "This is great. Everyone's together again!"

Sora rubbed the back of his head. "Actually, now that we're talking about it... we're trying to find Riku and the King. Have you seen 'em?"

Aerith, Cid, and Leon all silently shook their heads. Sora sighed and hung his head. "Right."

"Sorry," Aerith apologized. "But let us know if there's anything we can do to help. Okay?"

Sora nodded, his spirits lifted slightly. "Okay. Thanks."

Cid suddenly got off his chair, pushed Alex aside roughly, and advanced on Sora intimidatingly. "Don't go thankin' us just yet," he muttered, slamming his fist into his other palm.

Ignoring Cid's antics, Leon said, "Hollow Bastion's got a problem. A big problem."

Alexander, as soon as he had recovered, looked at him and said, "Nobodies and Heartless, right? Hard for there to be any other kinds of problems in this place."

Yuffie grinned. "That's right!"

Sora finally turned away from Cid and faced Yuffie. "Sounds like you could use our help."

"Then let's cut to the chase," Leon agreed, moving toward the trio. "Sora, Donald, Goofy. We were hoping the three of you might give us a hand around here."

Alex's jaw dropped. "_What!?_ Hey, I'm in this party, too!"

"Coulda fooled me," Yuffie said with a shrug. "I didn't see you do too much in that fight back there. In fact, you and Donald just kinda sat back while Sora did his stuff."

Donald flinched as he found himself confronted by Sora and Goofy with meaningful looks. Pointing at Alex frantically, he said, "It was **his** idea!!"

Alexander sighed and leaned against the wall as all eyes turned to him. "Okay, okay. I'm not that great a fighter. Especially not compared to them. But, hey, in that situation, I probably would've only gotten in the way of Sora's Valor Form."

"He does okay," Goofy said comfortingly, "considering that he just started fighting six days ago."

An awkward silence fell into the room. Leon shook his head and said, "Well, anyway... Sora, Donald, Goofy, and _Alex_... Any help we can get from you four would be appreciated."

Sora smirked. "Like we're gonna say no?"

Leon grunted. "Hmph... I forgot who I'm dealing with."

"Hey..." Donald cut in accusingly, "what do you mean by that?"

"Just think of it as some sort of 'Leon compliment,'" Aerith chided the duck. Alex rolled his eyes; that solution wasn't very impressive. But Donald dropped the subject, so Alex decided not to openly criticize it.

Leon walked toward the door. As he opened it and stepped out, he looked back and said, "Follow me to the bailey – there's something you need to see."

As soon as he was out of sight, a bright sparkling cloud suddenly _poofed_ into the room. When the cloud dissipated, a tall, thin, blue-robed man with an overly long grey beard, a tall wizard's hat, and a magic wand in the left hand was standing in the room. "Oh!" the man exclaimed at the sight of the quartet. "I thought it was you. Right on time!"

"It's Merlin!" Donald exclaimed as the four travelers dashed over to the wizard.

"Sora and the gang said they're going to help out!" Yuffie explained quickly.

"Splendid!" Merlin replied excitedly. "We'll count on you!"

_"Right!"_ Donald, Sora, and Goofy said in succession. Alex paused a little, but then said, "...Right."

The small hesitation between each affirmation caused Merlin to focus on the newcomer. "Ah, Alexander. It's certainly a pleasure to get to know you at last." Looking past them toward Aerith, he then said, "Did you give them the cards, dear?"

"Oh!" Aerith gasped. She reached into the pocket of her dress and pulled out several dark-violet cards, and proceeded to hand them out to each member of the quartet. "Here... they're presents for you. Leon thought you might like to have them."

Alexander took his card and glanced at the front, which had a golden silhouette of the ruined castle with "_H.B.R.C."_ in white letters below it. He then flipped it over and looked at the back. There was a small white strip across the card, and he found his own name penned into that space. Right above his name was a title printed on the card.

Sora did a take at what he read, grinning wildly. "'Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee Honorary Member'!"

"Membership cards!" Donald exclaimed. Each member had their own card with their own name on it.

Goofy nodded. "Kinda cool, huh?"

Sora, remembering who had suggested they be given the cards, turned around and said, "Hey, thanks Leahh... Huh?" He looked past Merlin, but then he groaned and muttered, "Oh no! We're supposed to be at the bailey!" Donald and Goofy nodded, and started for the door.

Merlin held up a hand. "Just a moment, Sora. What about your magic?"

Alex paused as he was putting his membership card into his pocket. He'd almost completely forgotten about the magic. It wasn't exactly something he'd used very often while playing the game, but he was interested now that he was in the reality.

"Huh?" Sora mumbled in response to Merlin's question. "Oh, that's right..." He crossed his arms thoughtfully, and a fairly long silence settled into the room.

Yuffie decided to put out a suggestion. "Maybe you forgot it when your memories were being switched around!"

Merlin sighed resignedly. "Now, what am I to do with you?" he muttered, almost under his breath. He held out a closed hand, from which a flash of blue light shone for a moment. When he opened his hand, two shining blue orbs were in his palm. "I suppose I'll have to lend you a few spells. But be careful with them!"

Sora took one of the orbs and held it in his palm. To Alex's astonishment, the orb merged with Sora's skin on contact and completely disappeared into his body. Sora grinned at the wizard and said, "Thanks, Merlin!"

Merlin held out the remaining orb to Alex. "You too, Alex."

Alex was surprised yet again. "Huh? Me!?"

The wizard rolled his eyes. "I'm pretty sure Donald already knows the Blizzard spell." The duck gave Alex an affirmative yet condescending nod at this.

Alexander blinked, but then hesitantly took the orb. "So, this is a Blizzard Element...?" he mumbled as he placed the orb in his palm. He then let out a cry as the orb suddenly sunk into his skin and disappeared. A cold feeling washed over his entire body, but it left a feeling of... power. Like he was filled with some extra energy.

Goofy nodded, and then said, "To the bailey, fast!" The trio ran out of the house, and Alex had to break himself from his reverie as he tried to keep up with them.

* * *

It took some time, high jumping, and ledge climbing to get up to the bailey, which – as its name implied – was the defensive wall surrounding the edge of the town right before the expansive canyon known as the Great Maw. The quartet entered the tower in the bailey, and saw Leon at the ledge overlooking the expanse beyond.

Leon got off the wall he was leaning against and turned toward the outside. "Look at that," he said simply.

Everyone moved toward the ledge, and directed their gazes toward the structure on the horizon. It was a large, sinister, and foreboding castle with a giant Heartless emblem on the central tower. The castle was situated in the center of the ruins of an old town, which was on a plateau.

And right around the plateau was nothing but blackness. Sora and Alex gasped at the sight. Alexander mumbled, "Is that... all Heartless!?" with a bit of fear in his voice. He couldn't even imagine being put up against all of those! He'd be dead – or worse, a Heartless – in two seconds!

Leon nodded slowly. "We want to restore Hollow Bastion to what it used to be. Who knows – maybe even something better. There's still a lot to do, but I'm sure we can handle everything... Except... for _that_..." He then pointed down toward a clearing nearer to them in the Great Maw. "...and that."

The quartet looked down, and Alex suddenly backed away. This tower was overlooking a freakin' canyon! It was fine when looking off into the distance, but to look straight down...!

"What's the matter?" Sora asked, looking back for a moment.

Alex shook a little. "Heights..." he simply said. "Anyway, I know what Leon means. It's the Nobodies, right?"

The trio looked back down, and saw two lone white figures moving across the Great Maw. Dusks. And they were moving toward the Heartless expanse near the foreboding castle.

Alex sighed and pressed his back to a wall. "Well," he muttered, "now I see why you doubted I'd be able to help..."

Sora looked toward Leon. "Don't worry – we'll handle 'em."

"Well, that's good to hear," Leon remarked. Looking past the Keyblade Master, he said, "So Alex – do you know what's going on, then?"

Alexander looked away from the ledge. "Well, on one side, we have this guy named Pete, who was once working with Maleficent to plot using the Heartless. He's still at it, but he doesn't exactly have the kind of mental skill to come up with..." He glanced back out toward the castle. "..._that_ kind of logistics."

Sora looked back in surprise. "You mean that's not Pete's work?" he asked.

"Prob'ly not," Alex said with a shrug, "though I can't be totally sure. I'd say it's a good bet, though."

The protagonist nodded. "Yeah..." Looking back at Leon, he said, "Pete's hardly smart enough to tie his own shoes. The ones we need to worry about are the Nobodies."

"And those Organization XIII guys in charge, too!" Goofy added.

_"You called?"_

Everyone flinched at the deep voice that suddenly responded out of thin air. They all looked around for the source of the voice, but had no immediate avail. Alex scowled after a moment, realizing who it was that was calling them.

Sora, getting an idea, ran out of the bailey's other exit and looked up at the top of the walls in front of him. Donald, Goofy, and Alex were close behind.

As they looked around some more, another voice said, _"You're doing well."_

"Who's that!?" Sora demanded loudly, summoning the Keyblade with a bright flash of light.

_"This calls for a celebration..."_

Suddenly, some Dusks appeared further along the path, which Donald and Goofy immediately charged at. Sora was about to follow them, but he stopped when some more Dusks appeared right behind him. Leon moved forward and brandished his gunblade, but the Dusks moved right past him and toward the bailey's entrance.

Alex, however, was already there, and he brandished his Lockshield as a metal gate swung shut behind him. The Dusks stopped for only a moment, but looked toward the gate purposefully.

Sora and Leon chased the Dusks into the roofed section of the bailey, and ended up being surrounded by the arrival of three more Nobodies of the same kind. As the two fighters stood back to back with their weapons, Leon shouted, "We can't let them break those gates! If they do, they'll get into the town!"

Alexander nodded, and immediately used a Reversal on one of the two Dusks in front of him to confuse them. While both were stunned, Alex smashed one of them with the face of his shield. Before he could get another hit on it, though, a Claymore rose up from underneath and created a small explosion, sending both Dusks into the air. Growling in frustration, Alex jumped up as high as he could and smacked the Dusk into the wall. Both impacts were enough to destroy that one.

A couple of Dusks tried to move past Sora, but the Keyblade Master immediately dashed toward them and held out his Keyblade. "_Blizzard_!" he intoned. All of a sudden, a small cluster of ice crystals simply shot out of the end of the Keyblade, and slammed into one of the Dusks. Sora then proceeded to whack the other Dusk with his Keyblade.

Alex was surprised for a moment. He'd almost forgotten about the magic in the intensity of the situation. A metal banging caused him to break out of that reverie; the other Dusk had recovered and was starting to attack the gates! Panicking at his momentary distraction, he hastily pointed his Lockshield at the Dusk and yelled, "_Blizzard_!"

He experienced a strange rushing feeling, like some of the extra energy was being sucked out of him. But then some ice crystals shot out from the center of the shield and struck the Dusk, just as another Claymore came in to explode. The Dusk was destroyed.

Leon slammed the edge of his gunblade into one of the Dusks, destroying it. He then looked toward Alex and said, "Watch out!"

One of the Dusks had escaped Sora and was heading toward Alex. Seeing this, Alex took a deep breath to catch his second wind, and then jumped toward the Dusk. They made contact in midair, and Alex shoved the Dusk aside. The Nobody recovered in the air fluidly, while Alex barely managed to land back on his feet. But then Sora rushed in and slashed the Dusk a couple of times, destroying it.

As soon as this happened, more Nobodies appeared on the other side of the bailey. There were a couple of Creepers in this group, as well as three armored, humanoid Nobodies with katanas in each hand.

Alex groaned. "Samurai Nobodies!" he declared.

"Alright, then," Leon mumbled in reply. He held up his left hand, and an orb of fire suddenly began to grow near his palm. "Here we go!" When it was large enough, he threw it at the group of Nobodies with all his might. The orb slammed into one of the Samurai and created a large explosion that damaged a few of the others.

Slamming on the gate was heard again, and Alex looked back to see two more Dusks attacking the gate. "Augh! I'll get on defense!" he shouted as he ran back toward the gate, swinging his Lockshield.

"Thanks! We'll take care of these!" Sora replied as he clashed blades with one of the Samurai.

Alexander sliced through one of the yet unsuspecting Nobodies with the edge of his shield, and slashed it a couple more times before knocking it away. The other Dusk turned its attention away from the gate and charged at Alex, who got slammed in the gut for his effort. Alex took a moment to recover, getting to his feet and retreating a few steps before charging again. He let the Reversal command take over as soon as he was close enough, and he slammed that one Dusk from behind into the ground.

Just as he was about to attack the other one though, Leon charged in and slashed down on it... while his gunblade had been enveloped by a huge blade of shining energy. Alex ducked as Leon used a horizontal strike to cleave the Dusk in two.

Sora knocked the last Samurai away, which was then destroyed by a detonating Claymore. The bailey was now clear. The energy around Leon's blade dissipated, and Alex fell to his backside while breathing heavily.

As he leaned back to catch a moment's respite, his hands moved to support his weight. His right hand suddenly brushed against a strange object out of his sight. He immediately grabbed it and held it up to his face. It was a bright red orb, slightly warm to the touch...

Alex let out a cry as the orb suddenly melted into his skin, and a very warm feeling washed over his body. After a moment, he started breathing again, and he looked at his hand in wonder. Curious, he looked over to Sora, only to find the protagonist absorbing a similarly colored orb. Sora grinned back at Alex and said, "Cool! We know Fire now!"

_"The Keyblade and the Lockshield..."_ the voice remarked again after a moment of silence. Alex got back to his feet as soon as he could, and he and Sora ran back out to search for the voice again. _"...Truly marvelous weapons indeed. Were they only in more... capable hands..."_

More voices joined him in rather hollow laughter. Donald and Goofy came running back up the path to rejoin the main group. Fed up with the enigma, Sora looked up and shouted, "Show yourselves!"

Up on the wall ahead of them, a dark portal appeared. From it, a figure wearing an Organization cloak appeared, with his hood up. Slowly, the figure looked down at them, and then lifted his arms to the sky. Sora gasped as five more portals appeared near the first figure, each depositing another of the mysterious figures. All in all, six of them looked down on Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Alexander below.

Alex took a hesitant step backward as he stared back. He knew that five members of the original thirteen had been defeated at Castle Oblivion, and two members had deserted entirely by now. "Take a good look, guys," he said to his allies. "These are the last six leaders of Organization XIII."

Sora looked back at his friends and nodded. Glaring at the Organization members, he shouted, "Good. Now we can settle this!"

The first figure above them feigned shock. "What a shame... And here I thought we could be friends." The rest of them joined him in laughter again as dark portals enveloped them all, masking their disappearance once again.

As they disappeared, Donald jumped and shouted, "Stop!" Not wanting to lose them, he led the way as the trio ran back along the path to the castle. But before they got far, another portal appeared in their way, and one of the dark-cloaked figures appeared in their path.

Donald did a take, looked back up at the high wall, then glared at the figure in front of him. "What's the big idea!?"

"Oopsy-daisy!" the figure said.

Alex groaned. "Oi. You're Xigbar, right? The Freeshooter, number 2? You're the only one of them who has that kind of ridiculous 'surfer dude' accent."

Xigbar was silent for a moment, but then he let out a laugh. "Wow, man! That's absolutely right! I guess the boss was right about you."

"Move!" Sora cut in harshly, brandishing his Keyblade menacingly.

Still under the hood, Xigbar feigned insult. "Now do you think that's polite, shutting me down like that?" he asked calmly.

"I _said_ get out of the way!" Sora insisted.

"As if!" Xigbar was quick to retort, dropping the act instantly. "You can talk all you want, but that won't change a thing."

Donald jumped back, and the trio assumed fighting stances. Alex, however, remained upright and still, with the Lockshield in his hand. The duck shouted, "Then we're gonna **make** you move!"

There was no need for pretend in the Organization member's skepticism. "See, that would work – if I were just any old dude. 'Cept I'm not. I'm with the Organization. Nothing 'any old' about me."

Alex grimaced. "We're not at your level yet," he admitted quietly.

Sora was skeptical in return. "Aw, c'mon Alex! It's just tough talk coming from someone who let his Nobody flunkies do the fighting while he stood on the sidelines!"

"Oh, dear," the Nobody muttered. "I think you got the wrong impression."

"You gonna cry?" Sora teased, earning a completely bewildered look from Alexander.

"As if!" Xigbar responded. "Why don't I remind you how tough the crowd you're dealing with really is?"

Alex took a reflexive step back. Sora's stance faltered for a moment. "Remind me?" he echoed. But the Keyblade Master quickly went back to glaring at the Nobody again.

Xigbar cackled once again. "That's **right**," he declared, "he used to give me that same exact look!"

Sora shook his head, not letting the strange remarks get to him. "I guess you think you can psych me out by saying really random stuff!"

"Gee..." the Nobody mumbled, pretending ignorance, "I just don't know." There was a long pause between the two groups. Xigbar then looked past Sora and said, "Hey, quick question."

Alex jumped a little, having been left out of the conversation for a while. "Me? ...Uh, okay. Shoot."

"Lemme think..." the Organization said slowly. "I'm kinda curious... How many times did you 'Game Over' when fighting me as Sora in the game?" He chuckled, and then shrugged at the boy. "Somethin' to think about. Be a good boy now!" With that said, he waved as a dark portal began to cover him up.

Donald immediately dashed toward the Nobody. "Wait!" He dived for the portal, but it had long dissipated before he'd jumped. He simply plopped onto the concrete. Picking himself up with a scowl, he muttered, "Nuts! He got away!"

Sora's expression was then one of confusion. "That was weird," he admitted. "**Who** gave him the same look?"

"Y'know," Goofy said after a moment, "I think he was just tryin' to confuse ya."

Sora smiled back. "Yeah, you're right. Only one me!"

Every instinct in Alex's mind reacted at this statement, and his body responded automatically. "Ah, well, no... Er..." This sudden outburst earned everyone's attention on him, and he suddenly knew that there would be no escaping this situation he'd now created.

"What is it?" Sora asked curiously.

Alex sighed. "The thirteenth member of Organization XIII," he explained, "was a boy named Roxas. He betrayed them some time ago. He wielded the Keyblade, and bore incredible resemblance to you."

Sora blinked. "Okay... But what does that have to do with me?"

Alexander scowled. There were several ways of going about this. And he didn't think that being blunt about it would settle in their minds very well or very quickly. He looked out toward the ruined castle in the distance and said, "Well, here's the thing. The names of each Organization member is an anagram of their original name with the letter X mixed in there. Take Xigbar for example. When he was human, he was called Braig. X, I, G, B, A, R – B, R, A, I, G, X. The same goes for everyone else in the Organization."

At this point, Alex was staring at Sora intently. He glanced at the others, and he could almost see the gears turning in their heads. Goofy seemed to count on his fingers as he mumbled, "R, O, X, A, S..." He paused in mid-breath, and his eyes went wide.

Donald gasped and pointed at Sora. "S, O, R, A, X!!"

Sora did a double take at this. "Wha-_What!?_ But... how is that possible?! I couldn't have had a Nobody – I never even became a Heart...!" He paused for a moment, and his eyes went wide as well. "Oh."

Alex nodded. "When you became a Heartless on your first visit to this world, you had a Nobody as well. Roxas worked with the Organization for a bit, but then he left. I can't be sure why he left, but it might be because he wanted to meet you, Sora."

Sora slowly nodded back. This news was a little tough to take for him. "Yeah... I guess... I would've liked to meet him too."

Alexander shrugged. "Well, fact is that he was still a part of you that you were missing when Naminé was putting you back together. In order for you to become completely whole, the two parts had to come together. Otherwise, we wouldn't have been able to wake you up back in the mansion."

"Wha...?" Sora mumbled. But he finally made sense of what Alex was telling him, and he placed a hand over his heart as a gesture.

Alex silently nodded affirmatively. But then he smirked and said, "You're still Sora, though. It's that name that's written on your membership card, right?"

Sora smiled, and pulled out the membership card from his pocket. "Right!" He looked at the back and read it. "The Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee Honorary Member–"

The card suddenly began to glow with a bright light, and Sora let go of it with a gasp. But the card remained in midair, enveloped by light. Everyone gasped in awe of the phenomenon, and watched as it rose into the air. "Huh?" Sora mumbled as the tip of his Keyblade began to shine as well.

"What's this?" Leon asked as he walked back over to them.

Goofy looked over to Sora. "Gawrsh, ya think...?"

Sora nodded, and then held out his Keyblade straight in front of him. Suddenly, a bright flash of light shone from him, almost blinding everyone else around him. Alex shielded his eyes against the flash, though it caught him off guard.

When the light faded, Sora was pointing his Keyblade up toward the sky, and the card had disappeared back into his pocket. "Ohh... now I get it," Sora mumbled as he lowered his arm. "That must've been the gate Yen Sid talked about."

Alex drooped a little. _That_ was the gate sequence!? Apparently, only Sora was privy to seeing it – everyone else got a "pleasant" blinding flash to the eyes.

Still, Goofy and Donald were unperturbed. "Oh boy!" Donald shouted with excitement. After all, it meant that they could go explore other worlds now!

Sora looked back to Leon. "Sorry to run, Leon, but other worlds are calling."

Leon nodded, and then crossed his arms. "Organization XIII," he mumbled. "They look tough. Be careful out there."

Sora nodded. "See you soon." He, Donald, and Goofy ran back through the bailey, headed toward Merlin's house. Alex was close behind them.

"Hey, Alex," Leon suddenly called out. Alex stopped and looked back as the others went on ahead. The Final Fantasy cameo approached him and said, "What was that guy saying about 'Game Over' back there?"

Alex chuckled nervously. "Oh, that? It was basically a veiled threat. Basically, how many times had I been beaten by him while playing as Sora in the game format." He then grinned and said, "Actually, I'd never lost to Xigbar, even on the high difficulty mode."

Leon shrugged. "Still, this isn't a game."

"Ugh, don't _remind_ me!" Alex groaned in response. "I was just not prepared to start battling at this age. And now I gotta go help save the worlds, basically!"

"Hey, don't freak out," Leon chided him with a small smirk. He walked past Alexander and said, "You still have the advantage of knowing everything in advance. Even if you aren't a good fighter yet, you're worth more than you look."

Leon finally left the bailey, leaving Alex alone for a moment. The young man sighed and said, "Still, fighting is freakin' _tiring_..."

* * *

**Disclaimer: I only own Alexander and the Lockshield. Every other element of this story belongs to their respective owners. Namely Square-Enix and Disney.**


	9. The Home of Dragons

Chapter 9  
The Home of Dragons

Alexander looked at his faint reflection in the gummi ship's bubble as they cruised through space. Hazel eyes, dark brown hair, and some pretty cool garments... He didn't like acting self-absorbed, but he got a good bout of vanity now and then. And it looked like his hair had become naturally spiky after the makeover the three good fairies had given his clothes not too long ago. Now it just looked kinda messy. Alex laughed. He couldn't possibly be in a Square-Enix game without having spiky-ish hair, huh?

"Alex?"

The boy turned to Sora, who was driving. "The path splits into two here. Which way should we go?" Alex looked ahead. The path did split. One way left, and one way right. Two different worlds to choose from. Alex thought about it. Remembering the world map, he said, "Left. That path leads to The Land of Dragons."

* * *

The quartet ended up walking through a forest of some kind. They came across a bamboo grove. There was a person in armor looking through a hole in the trees, a fire next to that, and a big shadow on a rock beside it shaped like a lizard. Donald whispered, "A Heartless?" Sora shrugged slightly. "Let's get the jump on it!" They ran toward the soldier and the shadow. "Gawrsh, maybe we'd better look before we leap!" Goofy called after them. Alex slapped his forehead.

The soldier looked back and was surprised. The shadow disappeared, and a red lizard ran out from behind the rock and hid behind the soldier. Sora and Donald stopped running, obviously realizing that their impressions had been misleading. Goofy and Alex came up behind them. "Is that Mushu?" Goofy asked.

Mushu looked over the soldier's shoulder. "Yeah, that's me. I'm lethal and legendary! Now, why don't you all scram?"

Sora wasn't daunted by this. "Mushu! We missed you!"

"Yeah, well you'd better hope I miss **you**, or else you're... you're..." Mushu's expression changed. "Sora! Donald! Goofy!"

"You know them?" the soldier asked in disbelief. Mushu jumped off and walked over to Sora. "Yeah, we used to kick all kinds of bad guy butt together. I helped them out of some really tight spots." He leaned on Sora's shin. "Right?"

Sora pulled back his foot, and Mushu toppled over. "Something like that."

Mushu looked up at Alex. "Who's the new kid?" Donald replied, "That's Alex. He's with us."

"Who is this?" Alex asked, indicating the soldier. Not that he didn't know the answer. The soldier got up. "I'm Mulan. Er, no, um... I-I mean..."

"Ping!" Mushu stated. Mulan nodded. "I am Fa Ping, son of Fa Zhou."

"So, uh, Ping, how do you know Mushu here?" Sora asked "Ping".

"Mushu's one of my family's guardians," Mulan replied. "Gawrsh," Goofy realized, "we didn't know we were borrowing someone as important as a family guardian."

Mushu came back up to Mulan's shoulder. "Yeah, that's right. And that means you're up to your eyeballs in debt to Ping here."

"Mushu..." Mulan scolded him. Mushu shook his head. "I don't think they'll mind. Ain't that right?"

Sora nodded. "Sounds fair."

Mulan brightened up at this. "I was just on my way to join the Imperial Army. I might be able to fit in better if I'm with guys like you."

Sora was confused. "What do you mean by 'fit in'?" Goofy had figured it out. "Oh, you're pretending to be a boy, aren't you?"

Donald and Sora were shocked. They did a humongous take, staring at Mulan. "You're a... girl?" Sora gasped.

Mulan looked hopeful. "You didn't notice?" Sora and Donald shook their heads. "Not me," Donald answered. Mulan looked back to Mushu. "I think it's working." Mushu shook his head as she walked past the quartet. "I don't know, those two would fall for anything."

An infuriated Sora shouted, "I'm right here!" Everyone followed Mulan to the training camp. "Hey, Alex," Goofy said as they took up the rear, "you probably knew the whole time, didn't you?"

Alexander laughed. "Hey, it's a funny scene to watch."

* * *

They reached the encampment. As the six of them walked in, Mushu popped up out of Mulan's armor and whispered, "Remember Ping... Man-ly!" Mulan straightened up and started a very awkward-looking walk toward the line ahead. The five of them got in line, with Sora at the front.

Suddenly, Yao appeared out of nowhere and shoved Sora out of the way. "It's about time we got some grub." Ling and Chien-Po came into the line as well. "Hey, what's that for?" Sora shouted. "No cutting in line!" Donald yelled. A brawl broke out. Goofy, Ping, Chien-Po, and Alexander watched. Mulan started to get worried. "Please!"

Everyone stopped and looked at her. "_Please_!" Ling mocked. "What a girl!" Yao muttered. Mulan quickly recovered and switched to the "manly" voice again. "L-Let's just get back in line."

Sora rubbed his cheek. "Whose side are you on? I just got slugged!"

"Want some more?" Yao threatened. "Soldiers! Get back in line!" a voice called out from the front. Everyone immediately obliged. "It's the Captain!" Ling gasped.

Captain Li Shang came up to the back of the line, looked at the five of them suspiciously, and walked back. Suddenly, several Shadows appeared next to them. "What are they?" Mulan asked. "Heartless!" Sora replied, summoning the Keyblade. Everyone else brought out their weapons. "Sora, we're going to need to keep morale up," Alex whispered to him, "or else we might as well be finished."

Sora nodded. "Ping, I hope you're ready!"

* * *

The Heartless were defeated easily yet again. After the short battle, Shang approached them. "You four. What are your names?"

"Sora." "Donald." "Goofy." "Alexander."

"You are welcome in my troop," Shang continued. "Your fighting skills will be a great asset."

"Ping" started again. "I am the son of Fa Zhou–"

"You can go home," Shang cut him short. Mulan was surprised. "But that would dishonor my family!"

Shang gave her the evil eye. "You'd rather dishonor my troops?"

Alex stepped in. "How about he fights with us? That way, neither him nor your troops will be dishonored if we take most of the work. He just needs a little more experience. Give him a chance!"

Shang considered this. "So you want to be tested?" There was a mutual agreement. "Well, the Hun army is going to be coming through the mountains."

"We'll crush them!" Donald shouted.

"No, you're going to be scouting for my troops," Shang decided. "Secure the mountain path for our company to pass through. Remember: sometimes even a small task can have great importance. Don't let me down."

"Sir!" they all shouted in response.

* * *

It was a pretty hefty task. Besides the Heartless, there were giant rockslides in the way. Sora had to break them down while the others distracted the Heartless. But they made it through finally.

Yao, Ling, and Chien-Po came up to them. "Hey, you ain't half bad," Yao remarked to "Ping". "A man among men!" Ling added. "Thanks!" Mulan replied.

As the three walked past, Mulan muttered, "But the Captain..."

"Captain!" Sora greeted Shang as he and a couple soldiers came up to them. "Very well, Ping. I'll let you join my troops. But... I still don't think you have what it takes."

"Why not?" Sora demanded.

Mulan shook her head. "No, it's alright Sora. I'll prove myself at some point. I just need another chance."

Shang approved of this optimism. "That's the spirit, Ping!" They walked up to the village.

* * *

Sora, Donald, Goofy, Alex, "Ping", and Mushu stood in a circle. "Now, I saw this really shady guy," Mushu started. "And it has to be Shan-Yu."

Everyone was surprised. "That's the Hun leader!" Sora realized. "We have to tell the captain!" Mulan nodded. "Right!"

Mushu cut them off. "Waaaait! Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait! Everyone use their heads for a second." Everyone went into deep thought, though Alex faked it. "Now, why are we here?" Mushu continued. "To bring honor to Mulan's– I mean, Ping's family."

"I get it," Alex spoke up. "If we go in and trash the Hun leader single-handedly, the Captain will have to recognize Ping!"

Mushu grinned. "That's right! I saw him go into a cave outside the village!"

The six of them walked into the village cave. At the end was a big spacious room. "Dead end," Alex observed.

"There's nobody here..." Donald figured. "What?" Mushu retorted. Donald started walking out of the cave. Goofy turned back and followed. "Wait for me, Donald!" Sora looked back. "Wait up, guys!"

Then the ground under them started to shake. "What's going on?" Ping asked. Then a familiar purple light appeared behind them and a barrier was formed, cutting them off from Donald and Goofy. Heartless appeared in the room. Mulan, Alex, and Sora drew their weapons. "Hey, Sora..." Alex whispered...

* * *

There were many Heartless that appeared in the cave, but Mulan did significantly better this time. As the last Heartless disappeared, the barrier vanished as well. Goofy and Donald ran up to them. "Are you okay?" Goofy asked. Sora shrugged. "Yeah, thanks to Ping."

"Okay, we'd better report to the Captain!" Mushu ordered. Everyone looked at him. "What about Shan-Yu?" Donald wondered. "Oh, please!" Mushu scoffed. "That Hun is old news! We have to tell the captain about how thousands of Heartless stormed this cave, and Ping took out almost every one of them!"

It was true. Sora and Alex hadn't done nearly as much fighting. On purpose of course, and on Alex's suggestion, but... "Okay, let's go!" Sora led the way out of the cave.

* * *

As they got out of the cave, they were greeted with a horrific sight. The whole town looked like a battalion and a wildfire had gone through it. Everything was smashed and charred black. Ping saw Shang clutching his stomach as he tried to get up. "Captain!" Mulan shouted. She ran over to him.

Still recovering, Shang explained that Shan-Yu had attacked the village while they were gone. The antagonist in question had escaped up to the summit of the mountain. "If you track down the villagers, we'll find Shan-Yu," Sora suggested. Goofy looked solemn. "It kinda is our fault."

Mushu jumped down and started pacing sadly. "You mean **my** fault."

Alex looked angry. "Cut that out!" But as snappy as he sounded, he also felt a little guilty. After all, he had known this was going to happen. He might have done something to prevent it... After all, it wasn't a game anymore. Nonetheless, that didn't mean that they were the ones who sacked the village.

Sora agreed. "Shan-Yu and the Heartless did this, not us." He stood up and glanced once more at the destruction around them, then looked toward the path to the summit. "Let's go."

* * *

They reached the summit. "Look!" Alex pointed up to a level of snow above them. Shan-Yu was there. Then Rapid Thruster Heartless lined that hill. "Oh, you're not serious..." Alex mumbled in shock. "Attack!" Shan-Yu shouted. Then the Heartless started flying down. Wave after wave of Rapid Thrusters came down the hill charging at the group. "They are!" Alex screamed. He brought out the Lockshield. Everyone else brought out their weapons and split up to fight the enemies.

As the Rapid Thrusters reached them, some Bolt Towers also appeared. Alex went after those first. One of them grabbed him with a bolt of energy and held him up high. Using all the will he had, he brought his Lockshield in front of the beam. Then he threw it at the Bolt Tower. The energy, now connected to the Lockshield, came closer to the Heartless until it made contact. The Bolt Tower exploded, also destroying any other Heartless nearby.

Then a group of Rapid Thrusters charged at him. Alex summoned the Lockshield back to his hand, and jumped up and spun around with the Lockshield. It hit some of the Heartless. Seeing more on the way, he spun around even more. The wind under him was forced outward. The wind formed a sort of Aero Blade and slashed the Rapid Thrusters into oblivion. Alex continued to use these tactics until all of them had defeated the army of Heartless.

* * *

A few more Rapid Thrusters appeared next to Shan-Yu. Shan-Yu roared, and started running down the hill. The Heartless followed him down. Everyone looked worried.

"We'll handle this!"

Everyone looked at Yao, Ling, and Chien-Po. Yao knelt down and aimed one of the cannons at Shan-Yu. Mulan got an idea. "Sorry!" She knocked down Yao and took the cannon. She placed it in the snow and aimed it at the mountain. Frantically looking around muttering something about a fire, she saw Mushu.

Mushu tried to get away as Mulan grabbed her and stretched him. Mushu coughed out a fire which lit the cannon. Mushu landed on the cannon right before it fired. "You're going the wrong way!" the guardian shouted as he flew toward the mountain. There was an explosion on the side of the mountain.

Alex did a take. "Run for it! There's going to be an avalanche!" he shouted as he started running. All the others looked confused until snow started to fall from the mountain. Everyone ran for it. The snow exploded on the hill and started rushing down the slope. Shan-Yu and his Heartless were overtaken by the avalanche.

Mulan saw the Captain coming up beside them. "Shang!" she shouted as she ran toward him. She grabbed his hand and pulled him out of the way just in time as the snow passed.

* * *

When the excitement was over, Shang and "Ping" stood up. "I never should have doubted you," Shang congratulated "him". "From now on, you have my trust."

Mushu popped out of the snow and shook the snow off his body. "First she uses me as a lighter, and then she uses me as a cannonball. I tell you, the ancestors are going to hear about this." Mushu sighed. "C'mon Mulan. Let's stop this charade and go home already."

"Mushu!" Mulan shouted. Mushu noticed the Captain and gasped, putting his hands over his mouth.

"Mulan?" Shang repeated in disbelief. "A woman?" He looked at Mulan.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy approached them, with Alex not too far behind. "Hey, you guys okay?" Goofy asked. "You all knew, didn't you?" Shang realized. "You all knew that Ping was really a woman it disguise."

Everyone's silence spoke for them. Shang walked away a few steps. Over his shoulder, he said, "The punishment for high treason and dishonoring the Imperial army is death." Mulan turned to Shang. "Get out of my sight... now," Shang ordered. "You're all dismissed."

Mulan looked worried. "Shang..."

"My debt is repaid." Shang continued walking away. "Move out!" The two generic soldiers in the front moved at an incredible limp as the rest of the army started marching down the mountain. "Hmm..." Alex mumbled in thought.

* * *

Mulan had changed back to her normal clothes. She turned back to the quartet. "Thanks for your help," she said. "No problem," Sora replied. "So, Ping... I mean, uh, Mulan... what are you going to do now?"

Mulan shrugged. "I'm going to go home." She started walking away with Mushu. "Man," Mushu muttered, "your dad's going to be steamed like a chicken dumpling." Mulan stopped and sighed.

Sora grabbed Donald, Goofy, and Alex and pulled them close to him. "Don't worry. We'll take our share of the blame." Mulan smiled. "You're all great friends. Thanks again."

As they got to the Ridge, Alex stopped. "What's wrong, Alex?" Donald asked. Alex shrugged. "I just can't shake the feeling that we're forgetting something..." Then he heard a sound from overhead. It sounded rather like... He looked up and gasped. Mulan saw it too. "Shan-Yu's falcon!"

The falcon wasn't the only cause for worry. A familiar war cry sounded out from a ledge below them, and there was the sound of Heartless appearing. Mulan, Sora, and Alex got on their stomachs and looked at the ledge below. It was Shan-Yu and a group of Rapid Thrusters! The falcon landed on Shan-Yu's shoulder, and the Hun looked toward the city.

"He's going to attack the Imperial city!" Mulan exclaimed. They got up. "We'd better head over there and stop him," Alex suggested. They all nodded and started running along the path down the mountain.

* * *

They reached the Imperial Square, and Shang's force was just ahead. The generic soldiers in the back were still at that limp. "–Shang!" Mulan shouted. "Mulan?" Shang asked in disbelief.

"Shan-Yu is alive! He's in the city!" Mulan insisted. Shang was still disbelieving. "Why should I trust you this time?"

Sora spoke up. "But... she's telling the truth!"

"Besides, your soldiers back there are about to become Heartless!" Alex pointed out. This got a "What?" from everyone else.

"Hmm..." Donald mumbled. "Ack!" He pointed up into the sky. The cry of Shan-Yu's falcon sounded out as Donald found it. This caught all of their attention. Shang looked around, and saw Shan-Yu on top of one of the towers. The Hun jumped off.

"Move out! Do not let the enemy get anywhere near the Emperor!" Shang ordered. Yao, Ling, and Chien-Po charged. Shang looked back at the other soldiers. "That's an order!"

The soldiers were surrounded in darkness for a moment, and they became Nightwalker Heartless. "What?" Shang muttered. The five fighters brought out their weapons. "We'll secure the courtyard, and you can go protect the Emperor!" Sora shouted. Shang hesitated. "That's an order!" Donald shouted. Shang nodded at him, and started running to the Palace Gate.

Alex looked at the enemies. "We're surrounded!"

Then Sora got an idea. "Mulan!" Mulan nodded. "For China!" Mushu came out. "I'll handle this!" Fire burst out of nowhere and damaged the surrounding Heartless. Then Sora, Mulan, and Mushu went flying around, burning the enemies in their wake. At the end of their attack, Mushu spat many fireballs into the air which landed on the few Heartless left and destroyed them.

Alex was impressed. "That was a pretty good Limit. Now let's get going!" He started running to the Palace Gate. Everyone else followed.

* * *

Shan-Yu held his sword to the Emperor's neck. "Now you'll bow to me." The Emperor remained silent. Shan-Yu looked at the five fighters as they came up the stairs. Suddenly, Shang dropped down out of nowhere and knocked Shan-Yu down. He took the Emperor and ran into the palace. Chien and Ling closed the door, and Shang looked back at them expectantly. Shan-Yu recovered and ran to the gate, but the five of them got in the way.

"It ends now!" Mulan stated. "Right now!" Sora agreed. The falcon landed on Shan-Yu's shoulder, and the Hun began to laugh as his body was surrounded by darkness.

"Protect the gates!" Alex shouted as he ran forward. Shan-Yu's sword and Alex's Lockshield clashed, and they were at a standstill. "You can't overpower me..." Shan-Yu muttered as they pushed against each other's weapons. "Oh yeah?" Alex mumbled. He pushed Shan-Yu's sword up, spun around and whacked the Hun in the face with the front of the Lockshield, knocking him down.

Without warning, the falcon picked Alex up by the shoulders. "What the...?" Alex shouted. The falcon carried him away from the Palace Gate and dropped him in the Imperial Square. "Not fair! I call foul play!" he yelled angrily as got back on his feet. The falcon flew back to the battle. Alex started running after it.

By the time Alex came back up the steps, Shan-Yu had fallen to the ground. "Good grief, I'm gone two minutes and I miss ALL the action?" Alex muttered in disbelief. Sora grinned. "Hey, you gave us the opening. Don't feel so bad." Alex sighed deeply.

* * *

The five of them stood there as the Emperor approached Mulan, who bowed in his presence. A huge crowd of citizens had gathered behind them in the courtyard. "I've heard a great deal about you, Fa Mulan," the Emperor stated. "You stole your father's armor, ran away from home, impersonated an imperial soldier. You disobeyed your commanding officer, shamed the entire Chinese army, and dishonored your family name."

Sora sighed. "We get the picture..."

The Emperor continued. "You are a young woman. And despite all that... you have saved us all." The Emperor bowed. Mulan stood up straight, surprised. She looked around nervously as everyone present bowed to them.

"Captain Li," the Emperor stated. Shang nodded. He held out Shan-Yu's sword and gave it to Mulan. "Take this," the Emperor offered, "so that the world will know what you have done for China." Mulan bowed again. "Thank you, your Excellency!"

Sora tapped Mulan's shoulder. "Can I get an autograph?" Mulan smiled. "Thanks for your help, Sora."

Mushu paced on the floor, excited. "Man, the ancestors gotta let me go back to being a guardian. They just **gotta**!"

Goofy was confused. "But, Mushu, I thought you already were a family guardian."

Mushu looked flustered. "Uh, now don't you worry about that. That's just real technical, just for us guardians."

Sora figured it out. "You tricked us!" He chased after Mushu. Alex laughed.

Just then, Shan-Yu's sword began to glow. "Huh?" Mulan mumbled. The sword floated out of her hand and into the air. "Hey, Sora!" Alex yelled. Sora looked back and glanced at the shining sword. He pulled out the Keyblade and held it in front of him. There was a bright flash of light as Sora opened a new path.

"Alright!" Donald shouted. "Looks like we have to get going," Sora declared. "...Is it okay if we come back to visit?"

"Of course," the Emperor replied. "We will look forward to your return," Shang added.

Sora smirked. "Play nice, you two," he teased Shang and Mulan. They became flustered. "Hey... watch it, soldier!" Shang called out. Mulan laughed.

* * *

**Disclaimer: I only own Alexander and the Lockshield. Every other element of this story belongs to their respective owners. Namely Square-Enix and Disney.**


	10. Waltz of the Diamond

Chapter 10  
Waltz of the Diamond

"Hey, Alex?" Sora asked. Alexander lazily turned his head toward the voice. "Yes?"

Sora pointed outside the gummi ship. "Where should we go next?"

Alex got up from the floor of the ship and looked outside. There was no fourth seat, so he had to cope without one, being the new member of the party. Anyway, since they opened the path from The Land of Dragons, there was a way forward. But there was still the fork in the path behind them. There was a world on the other side of the loop. "Let's go back."

"What?!" Donald yelled angrily. "Why go back?"

Alex raised up his hands defensively. "Remember that fork in the path before?"

Goofy agreed. "Yep. Are you saying we ought to go the other direction now?" Alex nodded, and they began to steer the gummi ship around and toward the next world.

Alexander reflected on his adventure so far. It was strange to think that he was living out Kingdom Hearts II, because his heart had connected with these worlds when he started a new game. And now he had the Lockshield, the direct equal and opposite of the Keyblade, in his possession. This was not what he expected to be doing. His mind wandered off back to Twilight Town, and his new friends Hayner, Pence, and Olette. He knew he would see them again, but it would be a while.

"Hey! There's a new world!" Sora shouted.

"That's right," Alex noted. "It's Beast's Castle."

* * *

The quartet walked into the entrance hall of the castle. It was very dimly lit, but there was enough light to see by.

"So, this is the Beast's castle, huh?" Goofy confirmed. "That's right," Alex replied. "He was at Hollow Bastion in your last adventure because his world had been destroyed. After you defeated... Ansem, the worlds returned to normal, and Beast and Belle came back here."

"Look!" Sora shouted, pointing at a Shadow that a crawling through the hall. It went into the parlor. "After it!" Donald yelled. They all ran into the parlor as well.

The four ran through the door. There was no Heartless in the small room. "Where did it go?" Alex wondered. Donald noticed a container with a shining rose in it. Being drawn to its shine automatically, he almost ran into a Shadow that appeared. Donald jumped back, surprised. "Ack! Found it." Even more Shadows appeared and surrounded them. Goofy and Alex brought out their shields, Donald pulled out his staff, and Sora summoned the Keyblade.

It was all Shadows, but there were a lot of them for such a small room. Not only that, but they just kept coming. For every one that they defeated, another one took its place. "Gimme a break..." Alex whined.

Then a roar sounded out, and the door slammed open. It was the Beast. All the Shadows charged at him, but he slammed them into the walls. Alex quickly got out of the damage path. "Just in time!" said Sora with a grin. But the Beast ignored him, and suddenly slammed him into the wall as he passed by. He did the same to Goofy and Donald. Then he picked up the rose's container gently and walked out.

Donald got up and rubbed his cheek. "Why'd he have to do that?" he muttered. The three of them looked at Alex. "Gawrsh," Goofy said worriedly, "did this happen in the game too, Alex?"

Alex sighed. It was rather... interesting having them know about the game. "Yeah, it did. I didn't get hit because I wasn't in the way," he added with a grin. Donald glared at him. "'In the way'?! Of what?"

"With this many Heartless around, something must be up," Sora reasoned. "Alex, you remember what happened, so tell us!"

Alex sighed again. He was going to interfere yet again. "To understand what's going on exactly, you'll have to be told the story of this castle." The trio nodded. Alex took a deep breath. "The Beast used to be a prince, for one thing," he began.

"The Prince is the Beast!?" Donald shouted. "The Beast is a prince?" Goofy asked. Alex nodded.

* * *

One winter night long ago, he explained, an old beggar woman came to the castle seeking refuge. The prince wasn't very princely back then ("In fact, he isn't like that much now either," Alex said with a chuckle), so he turned her away. The beggar warned him not to be fooled by appearances, but the prince still refused. Then the old woman's ugliness melted away to reveal a beautiful enchantress. Because of the prince's refusal, she put a curse on the whole castle. The prince turned into the Beast, and the servants became living variations of various things: clocks, wardrobes, teapots, etcetera, etcetera.

"We'd better find that enchantress!" Donald suggested. Alex shook his head. "That enchantress is long gone. The curse also said that if he didn't become able to love and be loved despite appearances before the last petal fell from the rose, they would remain cursed forever."

"That's quite a story," Goofy noted. They all agreed. "But it's the truth," Alex insisted.

"So that's why he cared about that rose so much!" Donald realized. Alex sighed. "Too much, perhaps. Organization XIII is at work here." This surprised all of them.

"We'd better find Beast!" Sora shouted.

Alex held up his hands defensively. "Wait! Let's go check on Belle first. She's in the east wing."

* * *

They quietly came up to the door to Belle's room. Alex silently pointed at the door, indicating that Belle was inside. Donald stood in front of it. "Okay," he muttered, and charged at the door. "Donald!" Sora warned him. The door swung open just as Donald jumped at it. He landed with a plop. Getting up, he shouted, "Hey! Who opened the door?" He looked up and saw Belle. "Donald!" she shouted. Belle picked him up and held him tightly. "Thank goodness you're here!" She saw the others. "Sora! Goofy! ...Who's this?"

"Put me down!" Donald yelled, running out of breath. "Put me down!" An embarrassed Belle let go of the duck, whose eyes were rolling. Alex laughed. "I'm Alex."

"Well, hello Alex," Belle greeted him. Donald recovered and joined his friends. Sora spoke up. "Is something wrong with Beast? He didn't seem to recognize us."

"Isn't that why you're here?" Belle asked. The quartet exchanged confused glances. "Not really," Sora answered, "but we can help anyway."

Belle frowned. "Well, Beast has been acting strange lately. He even locked up the servants in the dungeon!"

Alex acted surprised, but he was just trying to hurry things along. "He **what**!?" He turned to the others. "We'd better help them! We'll try to talk to Beast after that."

Belle smiled. "Thank you. There should be an entrance to the dungeon in the west wing."

* * *

And into the west wing they went. It had remarkably better lighting than the previous halls of the castle, Alex had to admit. "There should be an entrance to the undercroft around here somewhere..." Sora mumbled. Alex walked over to the end of the hall. There was a wardrobe in front of a door. Alex smirked. "Excuse me..." he said. A feminine face appeared on the wardrobe. "Yes?" it asked. This scared the others nearly out of their wits.

Alex smiled again at his comrades' reactions. "Er... can we pass? We're going to go try to save the others."

The wardrobe smiled. "About time. Hurry, that's no place for a clock."

Sora was still confused. "A clock?" The wardrobe looked at the others. "You'll find out soon enough." The wardrobe walked out of the way, and the quartet passed through the door.

Alex looked ahead. There was a big stone door, with the figures of two monstrous-looking guardians on the side of a keyhole. Donald walked up to the door and pushed. "Donald, watch out!" Alex shouted. "That's a Thresholder Heartless!"

"What?" Donald squawked in disbelief. Then darkness began to cover the door. The figures at the side of the lock turned black and started to move. Donald ran as the two fists slammed down on where the duck had been a second ago. Then two more clawed hands covered the lock from the other side of the darkness. The Thresholder was ready.

Alex ran forward and whacked the hands on the lock. This seemed to be their weak point. After a couple seconds, the Thresholder's fists slammed into him and Alex was thrown back. A few Hook Bat Heartless appeared in the room. Donald and Goofy focused on those, while Sora and Alex worked on the Thresholder. Soon, the Heartless was beaten up enough that it lost its grip.

"Sora! Now!" Alex shouted. Sora nodded. He jumped up, pointed his Keyblade at the lock and shouted, "Freeze!" A clicking sound was heard, and a Possessor Heartless flew out. The Thresholder turned back into stone. "That's a Possessor!" Alex yelled. "Get it!"

Sora, Donald, and Goofy attacked the Heartless. It didn't really fight back, but once it was almost destroyed, it started to fly back to the Thresholder to resume the cycle again. Alex had anticipated this tactic and was already there. "No you don't! _Fire_!" A ring of flames enveloped the boy, and it burned the Heartless. Defeated, the Possessor disappeared. The Thresholder dissolved into dust. "Well, that was annoying," Alex remarked. "Let's go." They went through the door.

* * *

Sora looked around. To him, it didn't seem like anyone was there. "...This is the dungeon, right?" he asked, confused. There was just a clock, a candlestick, a teapot and a teacup. "It doesn't look like there's anyone to rescue."

"Did someone say rescue?" a voice demanded. "Shh!" another warned the first. "It might be **them**."

The trio looked around. Alex sighed and said, "Don't worry, we're not with the Heartless. We came here at Belle's urging."

This seemed to relieve the voices. The clock, candlestick, teapot and teacup jumped off their respective platforms and walked over to them. This surprised all of them except Alexander. "I'm Sora," the Keyblader introduced himself. "Donald. Goofy. Alexander," he continued, indicating the others.

Donald picked Cogsworth the clock up. "Hey, stop that!" Cogsworth complained as the duck shook him. "I am self-winding, sir! Put me down!" Donald and Goofy continued to inspect Cogsworth with curiosity. Alex laughed. "Put him down, Donald."

Donald sighed and put Cogsworth down. "How'd you end up like that?" Goofy asked. "It's a long story," Lumiere, the candlestick, replied. "It was a cold winter's night..." Mrs. Potts, the teapot, began.

"Oh, this story? We've heard it," Sora cut in.

Cogsworth seemed pleased. "Well, that saves us a lot of time. Now, we need to find the prince. He's been acting strange."

Donald rubbed his cheek instinctively. "We already know."

Alex shrugged and said, "It looks like someone has been messing with his head. Controlling his emotions, if you will."

This surprised the servants. "Well, we'd better get going then!" Lumiere suggested. "I know a secret passage!" They all went back out of the dungeon.

* * *

Back in the undercroft, there was a balcony above them. On it was two suits of armor that looked impassable. Behind them was a door. Cogsworth cleared his throat. "Please make way for our guests!" he commanded. The suits of armor stepped to the side and stood still once more. The door that was once blocked slowly swung open, and all of them walked through.

As they entered the secret passage, Alex wondered, "How are we going to get to the west wing? I don't see a door or anything?"

Lumiere stopped and looked back at them. "Ah, it is hidden by a strange contraption."

Sora folded his arms. "What kind of contraption?"

"Observe," Cogsworth stated. He jumped up to a handle that swung a switch down with his weight. Four lanterns dropped down in various parts of the passage. One was right in front of them. They seemed to be covered in darkness. "If we can light all the lanterns here, the way can be revealed," Lumiere explained. "But the lanterns are already lit," Mrs. Potts added with a sigh, "with an enchanted flame. If only we could use the power of light..."

Sora thought about it. "How about I use the Keyblade?" he asked as he summoned his weapon. Sora used the light to shut out the darkness, Mrs. Potts put out the flame with water, and Lumiere lit the lantern with a normal flame. "Three to go!" Lumiere shouted. "But there is a catch."

They all looked at Cogsworth, who was struggling to keep himself up. "You don't expect Cogsworth to hang there forever, do you?"

Cogsworth was outraged. "What!? Why? Lumiere! You–"

Alex sighed. He walked over to Cogsworth, grabbed the handle and put the clock down. "Look, I'll hold it. If he let go, all of the lanterns would rise back up and we'd start all over again. I'll be waiting here."

Cogsworth took a deep breath of relief. "Thank you, Alexander."

Alex shrugged. "Think nothing of it."

* * *

The task was done, but there was no door yet. "Why doesn't anything happen?" Goofy asked.

"Don't worry," Lumiere brushed away their worry. "Just push on that stone, the one that's sticking out." Sora nodded, and pushed on a stone in the wall until it was even with the rest of the wall. A lot of rumbling happened beneath their feet, and a portion of the wall in front of them dropped down to reveal a hidden passage to the west hall.

Lumiere stepped forward. "Well, I'm going to check on the rest of the castle. I fear my absence has been too long." Mrs. Potts and Chip did the same.

Cogsworth turned to face Sora. "We need to go talk to the prince. I'll be waiting for you at his room at the end of the west wing."

* * *

Alex walked up to the door to the Beast's room, but didn't open it. Motioning for the others to be quiet, he put his ear at the edge of the door. He heard voices.

"...she's going to take everything you have. Your castle, your precious rose. And then... your life. Trust no one. Feed your anger!"

Sora heard it too. "Who's that?" he whispered. Alex shushed him, but then whispered back, "Xaldin. The Organization's number III. The Whirlwind Lancer. Now be quiet!"

"What?" Xaldin asked the other in the room. "To love, and to be loved in return? Who could ever love a beast?"

"He's talking to the Prince!" Goofy realized. They all burst into the room, drawing their weapons. Xaldin turned to face them. "See? She has accomplices." Xaldin disappeared. "Hey, Prince!" Sora called out to Beast.

The Beast didn't seem to hear him. He turned around and roared. Then he lunged at the group. Everyone got out of the way except for Alex, who hadn't remembered this moment in the game. The Beast swiped at him, and Alex was thrown against the wall. That knocked him out cold. The last thing he heard was Beast's roar.

* * *

"_Cure_!" Donald shouted.

Alex felt strength coming back to him. His bruises were healing, but he still felt sore all over. He slowly got up. "How long was I out?" he asked groggily. Sora laughed. "A few minutes." Alex looked at Beast. The prince looked incredibly solemn, which meant that he was back to his senses. "Hey, don't worry about it," Alex muttered.

Beast sighed. "I'm sorry, Alexander. I wasn't myself."

"I see I've already been introduced." Alex put his hands up defensively. "Hey, I already said don't worry about it. I know Xaldin was messing with your emotions; that's why we're here."

"Let's go see Belle. Beast needs to talk to her," Sora ordered. Beast sighed.

* * *

When they got to Belle's room, the only one there was the wardrobe. "Where's Belle?" Sora asked. "She left," the wardrobe replied. "Something about following a man in a black coat..."

"She **what**!?" Beast roared. "Why doesn't she do what she's told?"

The wardrobe turned away from him. "Temper, temper! Her spirit is what makes her special, you know."

Alex turned to Beast. "If she's following Xaldin, then she's probably in great danger. We'd better find her!" Beast nodded, and they all ran out of the room. Rushing out to the entrance hall, Beast yelled, "Belle! Where are you?"

A girl's voice shouted from the room behind them. "Beast! Help! I'm in the ballroom!" The five of them ran into the ballroom. Belle was running from something. "You're here!" she shouted as she ran outside to the porch and closed the door. Alex looked up and gasped. "That's a Shadow Stalker Heartless!" The Shadow Stalker stopped at the door and looked back at the five of them. It looked like a huge dark ball with eyes... surrounded by chains.

It flew to the middle of the floor and jumped in. As it popped back out, the whole room became coated with darkness. It had become a dark arena. Alex ran up to it and slashed it with the Lockshield's sharp edge. The Shadow Stalker flew up to the chandelier and merged with it. The chandelier dropped down and started to attack with flames. Sora and company attacked the chandelier until the Shadow Stalker was weakened. Then Sora used his Keyblade to release the Heartless.

Weakened now, the Shadow Stalker became engulfed in darkness. It was still for a few seconds, but it suddenly burst, and a Dark Thorn Heartless appeared. The second stage of the battle started. The Dark Thorn became invisible and began attacking. Alex jumped onto its head and jumped high up onto the chandelier. Then he smacked it down to the ground. It began spinning around, and one part of the chandelier caught the Dark Thorn and dragged it along. Alex jumped off, the Dark Thorn was thrown back, and the chandelier rose up to the ceiling.

Alexander ran up to the Heartless and bashed its head with the Lockshield. Obviously angry, the Dark Thorn grabbed him and spun around and threw him toward the other end of the dark ballroom. Alex grabbed one of the pillars and used the momentum to swing back to the Dark Thorn. Spinning around, the Lockshield slashed the Heartless many times and knocked it back.

The Heartless was defeated. The exterior of its body cracked, and it shattered into many fragments of darkness which vanished. The ballroom immediately turned back to normal. "You did it, Alex!" Sora shouted. Alex shrugged. "It was nothing. I remembered the reaction commands from the game, so it wasn't too hard."

"Oh, did you?" a voice taunted them. They all looked back at the Organization member. "Xaldin!" Beast yelled, and they all ran to him. "Farewell," Xaldin muttered as he was enveloped in darkness. "Who was he?" Beast wondered.

"He's probably with the Organization," Sora answered. Beast turned to him. "Ever heard of the Nobodies?" Sora continued. "When a strong-hearted person becomes a Heartless, a Nobody is created too. The Organization controls those Nobodies."

"That's why they wanted to turn you into a Heartless," Goofy realized, "so that they could get your Nobody and control it!"

* * *

Belle ran into the ballroom. Beast turned to her. "Belle..." He faltered, and he looked back at the others. Sora urged him onward. Beast looked at Belle again. "I'm sorry. I wasn't myself. I hope I didn't hurt you..."

Belle smiled. "I'm fine. But I wish you would have changed at least a little." Beast flinched. "You need to learn to trust me more."

"Time is running short," Lumiere remarked. Alex glanced at him and the rest of the servants, wondering where in the world they had come from.

"The rose?" Donald asked. Cogsworth nodded. "You think he can make it?" Sora asked. Mrs. Potts smiled. "We have faith in him."

"I sure **hope** they can make it," Sora remarked in disbelief. Then, suddenly, the Keyblade appeared in his hand. He looked up at the ceiling. Alex knew that the rose was shining above them, ready to reveal the gate. A bright light flashed in the room as Sora opened the gate with the Keyblade.

"What was that?" Beast asked. Donald shouted, "The gate is open!"

"You have to leave?" Belle inquired. Sora nodded. "If you learn anything about Riku or the King, the Nobodies, the Organization – anything, let us know!" Beast nodded. Alex waved. "See ya!"

* * *

**Disclaimer: I only own Alexander and the Lockshield. Every other element of this story belongs to their respective owners. Namely Square-Enix and Disney.**


	11. Winnie the Pooh

Chapter 11  
Winnie the Pooh

The ship began to steer its own course. "Huh?" Goofy mumbled. "The ship's moving on its own?" Sora wondered. "Yep," Goofy confirmed. "It looks like it's taking us to Hollow Bastion!"

* * *

The quartet walked through the Borough. "I wonder what's up," Sora muttered. As they turned the corner to Merlin's house, several Soldier Heartless ran out the door and vanished. Surprised, they all ran into the house. Merlin was sitting there, gasping for breath on his backside. Slowly getting up, he muttered, "Well... took your time, did you?"

"Oh, so you were the one who summoned us, Merlin?" Goofy asked. Merlin nodded.

"What's up?" Sora asked, shrugging off the sarcasm. Merlin sighed and began, "I found this in the Zero District." He held out his hand, and a book appeared in a puff of smoke. Donald took it. Sora recognized the book. "Pooh's storybook!"

"I knew that you were a good friend of Winnie the Pooh, so I summoned you," Merlin explained. "But that used quite a bit of my power... and then those infernal Heartless... though I did use some of my most powerful magic..." Merlin shook his head. "Wait, Leon and the others need to hear this too... Wait right here." He disappeared in a puff.

"I wonder how Pooh's doin'," Goofy wondered. "Why don't you go visit him, Sora?"

Everyone looked at him. "But Merlin..." Donald started, but gave up and opened the book. Sora got ready to enter the Hundred Acre Wood.

"Sora!" Alex shouted. "Cover for me!" Sora ordered. A bright flash occurred, and Sora vanished.

Alex sighed. "Well, I was about to mention the Heartless... what if they come back?"

"Look!" Donald shouted. A Soldier Heartless ran through the door. Donald and Goofy brought out their weapons. "Let's get it!" The two of them chased it out of the house. Alex summoned his own shield and was about to follow, but an idea came to him. "Wait a minute..." He looked at Pooh's storybook. Sora was still inside. He couldn't call him back out to go fight, but if he left the book here...

Alex had decided. He picked up the book and put it in one of the big pockets of his slacks. He was glad the three good fairies had given him something efficient. Secured, he ran out the door and joined his comrades.

There was a group of Soldiers and Shadows around them. "Did ya bring the book, Alex?" Goofy asked. Alex nodded. "Yeah, I got it," he replied as a Soldier approached. He slashed it with the edge of the Lockshield.

Donald got hit by a Soldier's counterattack. Alex shouted, "_Cure_!" Donald was instantly healed, but Alex's magic power was gone. Donald was surprised. "Where did you learn that?"

Alex shrugged as he bashed a Shadow. "I found a Cure Element after we beat the Dark Thorn in Beast's Castle." By then, the Heartless had all been defeated.

A bright light came from his pocket. Alex quickly pulled out Pooh's storybook and opened it. A bright flash occurred again, and Sora appeared. "Huh?" he muttered, looking around. "Why are we out here?"

"Heartless attacked while you were inside," Alex explained. Sora was surprised. A puff of smoke appeared, and Merlin emerged from it. "Couldn't wait up for an old wizard, could you?"

Sora shrugged. "Sorry about that..." They all walked back inside.

* * *

"So how's everything in there?" Merlin wondered. Sora smiled. "Pretty good. I joined Pooh in his stoutness exercises."

Alex sighed. "Good. That's a relief." Everyone looked at him with confused expressions. "Oh, right... In the game, the Heartless had gotten a hold of the book, ripped out a few of the pages, and Pooh had forgotten Sora and all of his friends. Then you would've had to find the scattered pages," he finished.

This was rewarded with surprised looks from all of them. "Well, it's a good thing you were there, then!" Goofy remarked.

Merlin nodded. "Yes, your interference was certainly a good thing this time." Alex looked at Merlin suspiciously, but let it go. _This time...?_ he thought.

"I have something else to show you, Sora," Merlin added. He gave Sora a charm with the picture of a baseball on it. "If you focus your heart, you only need to say the word and an ally will help you out in battle."

Alex nodded, taking a look at the Baseball Charm. "A summon... like Simba and Mushu were in the first game?" he inferred. Merlin confirmed this. "Thanks, Merlin!" Sora thanked the wizard. They left and continued their journey.

* * *

**Disclaimer: I only own Alexander and the Lockshield. Every other element of this story belongs to their respective owners. Namely Square-Enix and Disney.**


	12. The Underworld

Chapter 12  
The Underworld

"I wonder what Merlin meant..." Alex thought aloud. Sora looked back at him, but went back to steering the gummi ship.

After a few moments of silence, Goofy asked, "Say, Alex, what world do you think we're going to next?"

"Well, we did The Land of Dragons and Beast's Castle..." Alex thought about it. "So the two paths in the loop are going to meet up and lead to a world you guys recognize."

"Ack!" Donald exclaimed, pointing out the window. "Olympus Coliseum!"

* * *

They disembarked and came to a dark and dreary cave. There was a bright staircase in the back, and two paths to the sides, one of which was blocked by blue flames.

"Ya sure this is the coliseum?" Goofy asked. Donald pointed at the staircase. "It's that way!"

Sora shrugged. "Oh, I guess we were a little off." Alex looked around. "A little...?"

Just as they got to the staircase, they heard a woman scream. Everyone looked back. There was a woman in a violet toga being chased by Rabid Dog Heartless.

"Heartless!" Sora signaled. Everyone ran to her. At the sight of the quartet, the Rabid Dogs ran away. The woman started to get up, and Sora held out his hand. She glanced at him and said, "No thanks, I'm fine." Sora silently insisted. The woman finally got a good look at him. Standing up fully, she said, "And who are you supposed to be?"

Alex snickered to himself. _You were expecting someone else?_

"I'm Sora," the Keyblader introduced himself. "That's Goofy, Donald, and Alexander. We were on our way to visit Hercules."

The woman sized the four of them up. "You know Wonderboy?" she asked finally.

Donald stuck up his chin. "Yeah, 'cause we're heroes too!" Goofy laughed. "Y'mean junior heroes, Donald." The duck glared at his comrade.

"Looks like we have a friend in common," the woman remarked. "My name's Megara. But my friends call me Meg."

"So, Meg," Alex started, "what's been going on lately?" Megara sighed. "Just the usual. Wonderboy's duking it out every day at the coliseum. You know, 'a hero's work is never done' and all that. But Wonderboy has his limits, too. These enemies are bad news. Special deliveries from Hades himself."

The quartet was immediately surprised. "Hades?!" Donald shouted.

Meg nodded. "That's right. The Lord of the Dead. I was on my way to see him. I was hoping that I could ask him to give Hercules a breather."

Sora got an idea. "Well if the Heartless are in the way, you'd have a lot of trouble getting to him. Maybe we could go talk to Hades and save you the trouble." Meg thought about it. "Well, you look like you can handle it. I'll leave it to you. I'm counting on you." She walked back to the Coliseum.

Alexander sighed once Meg was out of earshot. "I really doubt this will work... I mean, why would Hades want to stop pestering his freakin' **nemesis**?" Sora and the others brought out their weapons. "We'll convince him," Sora insisted. Alex groaned.

* * *

They entered the Cave of the Dead and started walking down the Heartless-littered path. As they came to the second room, they saw an Organization member running ahead. "The Organization!" Donald shouted. "Yeah!" Sora confirmed.

The quartet chased after the Nobody. There were many Heartless in the way. "Y'know something..." Alex muttered after playing tug-of-war with a Lance Soldier, "I get the feeling that Hades isn't the only one plotting here."

Sora slashed a Rabid Dog with his Keyblade. "What are you implying?" Alex bashed another with the face of the Lockshield. "I'm implying Pete." This surprised all of them, and their pace quickened all the more.

Finally, they got to the inner chamber. The Organization member was running straight toward them. Sora got into his stance, but the Nobody ran past them. "Run! Run away!"

Everyone watched him leave, confused looks on their faces. "Okay..." Sora mumbled.

Alex was clutching his stomach, laughing that hard. "Gawrsh, Alex, what's so funny?" Goofy asked. Alex recovered just enough to say, "That was the Organization's resident coward, Demyx. I've fought him before, so that moment..." He resumed laughing his head off.

* * *

"Where do they dig these freaks up? Geez, Louise," Hades grumbled in his chamber. "Ah, they're nuttin' but trouble, the whole lot of 'em," Pete agreed. "Now, what are you going to do about Hercules? He's made mince meat outta every fighter you sent at 'im."

Pete started to laugh. "Pretty soon the Underworld's going to be standing room only! Say, why don't you pick someone already dead and save him the trouble?"

Hades advanced on Pete in a moment of outrage, scaring the fat antagonist, but then he calmed down. "Dead... Dead is good! And I have just the warrior." Pete still looked worried.

* * *

Alex had finally calmed down, and they pressed onward. The quartet came to the Path of the Dead. Donald and Goofy were shaking. "Wagh... agh..." Donald mumbled. "I'm scared too, Donald," Goofy agreed.

Alex had seen this before, and Sora wasn't fazed at all. "Hades, come out!" he shouted. The voice echoed but got no answer. Alex pointed to the structure ahead, which he recognized Hades' Chamber.

* * *

Under the table was a deep green swirly pit. Not at all ominous, right? "Uh, by the by... what's that?" Pete wondered. Hades chuckled. "Oh, just the Underworld's deepest dungeon. This time I'm bringing out the mother of all bad guys."

Pete looked up to Hades and saw how serious he was. Stepping back, he said, "You don't say?" He backed up against the wall. "Well... maybe I should go."

Hades summoned two fireballs and threw them into the pit. They exploded and some smoke rose out of the pit. The smoke slowly turned crimson, beginning to spark. After a few moments, a figure in red stepped out of the dissipating smoke. The pit closed again. Hades laughed, but then got serious again. "Let's cut to the chase. I let you out of the slammer – no strings – you'll be as free as a bird. And all for one little job. Fight Hercules... in the Coliseum... to the death!"

Auron smirked. "This is my story. And you're not part of it." He rested his blade on his shoulder. Hades was outraged. "Did you forget who you're talking to? I am the Lord of the Dead!" Auron chuckled. "No wonder no one wants to die."

Hades turned red. "You are **fired**!" He charged at Auron who blocked the attack with his sword. The quartet ran into the chamber. "Hades!" Donald shouted. Hades turned blue. "You again?"

Auron threw him back. "Fight!" he shouted. Then Hades turned red and tossed a fireball at Auron. Auron took the hit was knocked down. The quartet brought out their weapons. "Get up!" Sora shouted.

"Hmph. That's it!" Hades muttered. Alex charged in and slashed at him with the edge of the Lockshield. But it left no mark and did no damage. Just as he suspected. Alex stepped back. "Something is wrong!" Donald realized. "I feel kinda funny..." Sora remarked.

Hades smiled an evil smile. "That's right! See, that's the thing. In the Underworld, heroes are zeros. Comes with the territory." Hades charged at Sora with more flames, but Auron countered. Hades disappeared in a puff of smoke and reappeared at the back of the chamber. "We can't fight him here," Auron insisted. "We have to go... now!"

"But I've got to talk to Hades!" Sora complained. Hades had his fingers in his ears. "What was that?" Annoyed, Sora charged again, but Auron held him back. Reluctantly, Sora followed the others out as Hades hurled more fireballs after them.

As they left the chamber, Sora and Goofy quickly closed the door. Donald gasped for breath. "Is he gone?"

Auron disagreed. "Don't count on it."

"Huh?" Sora mumbled. He looked over to Hades, who had appeared right next to him. "Oh!"

Hades smirked. "Leaving so soon?" A barrier came up behind them, and Heartless surrounded Hades. Alex realized what was happening. "We gotta head for the exit! The Heartless are holding up the barrier!"

The group ignored Hades and his fireballs and just attacked the Heartless. They went from one platform to another fighting Heartless and avoiding Hades. Auron was taking most of them out, though. He was exceptionally skilled, and it was even more apparent seeing it in reality. Auron had far more experience in fighting than even Sora had.

Finally, they got back to the inner chamber. Hades had given up the chase. Sora, Donald, and Goofy were all on their backs gasping for breath. Alex was still standing, but was also catching his breath. Auron wasn't fazed at all. "You're really good," Sora remarked. "Are you some kind of hero?"

Auron shook his head. "No. I'm no hero. I'm just an..." He paused for a moment. "Auron."

Goofy and Sora exchanged confused glances. "My name," Auron explained. Sora got up. "I'm Sora." Donald jumped onto Sora's back. "Donald!" Goofy jumped onto Donald. "Goofy!" The three of them collapsed with their combined weight.

Alex laughed. "I'm Alexander." Auron smirked. "Looks like you could use a guardian."

Sora pushed the others off of him. "Guardian? Thanks, but no thanks." He stubbornly started walking out of the chamber. Auron chuckled.

* * *

"I've got my Heartless all over the Underworld now," Pete told Hades as the Lord of the Dead walked back into his chamber. "You can leave those pipsqueaks to me. You just focus on turning Hercules into a Heartless! Then he'll be all mine!"

Hades suddenly ignited. "This is my Underworld, you idiot! I'll take care of it myself!" Pete quickly backed off. Hades looked out the window of his chamber. The infamous three-headed dog Cerberus came up to it. "Cerberus, go!" Hades ordered. The dog started running after the five of them.

* * *

Donald pushed on the gate to the main chamber of the Underworld. "It won't open!" he realized. The trio pushed on the door, but Alex already knew the problem. There was a lock on the gate. The Lockshield appeared in his hand. "Will that open it?" Auron asked. Alex nodded. "Yeah, it will."

He pointed it at the lock, but then they heard a roar behind them. "Hurry!" Auron shouted, resting his sword on his shoulder. A blue beam shot out of the center of the Lockshield and collided with the lock. "Unlock!" Alex yelled. The lock clicked and disappeared, and Donald and Goofy opened the gate and went through. Sora was about to, but he hesitated and ran back to Alex and Auron. Cerberus ran into the chamber and a barrier formed itself in front of the gate.

Alex, Sora, and Auron charged. Sora and Auron attacked the heads on the sides, and Alexander bashed the one in the center. Cerberus, probably irate, spun around knocking Auron and Sora off. Alex was dragged along by the heads.

Regaining his senses, he saw that the side heads had him pinned. Those heads launched him up to the center, which was ready to bite him. Alex blocked the center dog's mouth with the Lockshield. One of the side heads tried to bite him there, but Alex pulled out his shield and jumped up into the air. Then he came back down and bashed the top of the heads, causing all the heads to bang together in a chain reaction. Cerberus went down stunned.

The barrier behind them disappeared, and the trio ran through. Auron and Alex started pushing the gate closed. The three-headed dog saw it closing and ran up to it. Sora, Donald, and Goofy taunted Cerberus as the gate closed and Cerberus crashed into it.

"Whew..." Sora muttered. Donald and Goofy looked around. "Huh?" Auron was nowhere to be seen.

A confused Donald asked, "Where'd Auron go?" Sora shrugged. "He can take care of himself. Let's go back to the Coliseum and meet up with Meg. Then we can try this again."

Alex was shocked. "Again? There's no way doing it a second time is going to work!" The trio gave him the evil eye, and Alexander gave up with a sigh.

* * *

Hades and Pete were silent for a moment.

"Let's see if I got this right..." Hades began. "That brat's Keyblade works on any lock?"

Pete nodded, and Hades laughed evilly. "Did I ever tell you about the killer coliseum we have right here in the Underworld? It makes the one upstairs look like an Olympic kiddie pool."

Pete slammed his fist on the table. "Then that's where we're going to end Herc the Jerk's winning streak!"

"Problem," Hades interrupted. "Zeus locked it tight." Pete groaned, but then it hit him. "Exactly," Hades agreed, seeing that he'd gotten it. "All we have to do is swipe that Keyblade and reopen the Underdrome!"

Pete chuckled evilly, but then presented the other problems. "But that Keyblade's kinda particular. It won't work for just anybody. And that kid is no pushover, either."

Hades thought about this. "I think this calls for a woman's touch." He snapped his fingers, and a statue of Megara appeared in his hand.

"And another thing..." Pete added. Hades looked confused. Pete continued, "The new kid with the shield's a pretty smart character. He might find out about your plan."

"How do you figure?" Hades asked. Pete shrugged, and said, "Well, he knows a lot. He knew about those nimrods taking out Maleficent, but he hadn't even been there! And it didn't look like that trio told him, neither."

Hades considered this problem, too. "...What kind of shield does he have?" he asked suddenly. Pete wasn't expecting this. "Well, I overheard them say something about a Lockshield, the opposite of the Keyblade..." he said hesitantly. Hades grinned. "Well, I'll have to look out for him, then."

* * *

Sora pushed open the Coliseum gates. The bright structure of Olympus Coliseum came into view. The four of them marveled at the familiar building. "Gawrsh, this sure brings back memories!" Goofy remarked. The trio were feeling giddy about being back. Alex, however, figured it was just the release of tension from escaping the Underworld curse.

As they approached the Coliseum, the doors swung open, and Hercules slowly walked out. Upon seeing the trio, he said, "Sora! Donald! Goofy! When'd you get here?"

"Hey, Herc!" Sora replied with a wave. "Hi!" Donald shouted. "Howdy there!" Goofy greeted him.

"Where have you guys been?" Hercules asked excitedly. Sora shrugged. "Oh, the usual. Tracking down some friends, wiping out some Heartless."

Hercules grinned. "Junior heroes, always busy!" Sora grinned back. "You know it!"

The hero looked over to Alex. "Who's this?"

Alex waved. "I'm Alexander. I met up with these three a while back, so I've been traveling with them."

Hercules nodded. They all went into the lobby of the Coliseum. Alex looked around the lobby. Meg was in there, too. So much time he had spent here in the first game, really... and part of it was just sealing the Keyhole that had been under the heavy stone. Alex slapped his forehead. The Keyholes! He had completely neglected them in the previous two worlds!

Hercules sat down. "Well, have you found those friends of yours yet?"

Sora shook his head slightly. "Still working on it." Hercules then asked, "Well, when did you guys get here?"

Alex spoke up. "A while ago, but we got a bit lost in the Underworld. We had to help someone out, so we tried talking to Hades." He glanced at Megara, then continued. "That didn't work out. The Underworld curse is draining our strength."

"The Underworld curse, huh?" Hercules wondered. "Well, there's this stone called the Olympus Stone. It's said to counter the effects of the curse. The gods would use it when they entered the Underworld. But it'll take more than that to take on Hades." At this, the quartet sighed and hung their heads. Hercules stood up. "You know what you need? Training! I'll go get the Olympus Stone. You three go see Phil."

The trio nodded. "What about me?" Alex asked. Hercules shrugged. "You aren't a junior hero, so you haven't been given the right to go into the Coliseum."

Alex sighed. "Very well. I'll wait for you guys in here."

* * *

Sora, Donald, and Goofy went into the arena to train with Phil. Hercules left the other way to fetch the Olympus Stone. Alex and Meg were stuck in the lobby. A few minutes went by in silence.

Suddenly, a puff of dark smoke occurred in the room, and Hades stepped out of it. "Hades!" Meg exclaimed. "Nice to see you too, darling," Hades replied with a grin. "You know something... I've got a _killer_ of a problem on my hands, and I could really use your help."

Hades chuckled and snapped his fingers. Darkness snaked its way around Meg's body, forming bonds that held her in place. Then she disappeared in a puff of smoke. Hades then turned to Alex, who summoned the Lockshield. "Ah," Hades muttered, "so you're the Lockshield brat, huh?"

Alex glared at the Lord of the Dead. "Who told you, and what do you want from me?"

Hades ignored his questions. "But you don't need me to tell you what I'm planning, right? You already know." Alex's silence spoke for him. Hades turned back and started pacing. "Well," Hades continued, "that fat bloke Pete might have mentioned you..."

Hades turned around again. "And I need you to keep your nose out of my business for a while." Alex was outraged. "What?" Hades shook his head. "No no, wait. I mean, keep your nose out of my **Underworld **for a while. At least until I take care of a diversion or two."

Alexander swiped the Lockshield at Hades, who stepped out of the way. "Get real! I do know what you're planning. However, it wouldn't be in my best interest to interfere."

Hades was surprised. "Why not?"

Alex smirked. "Well, Hercules needs to learn to take a break at some point, right?" That wasn't the only reason, but more would be too much of a tip to Hades.

Hades wasn't expecting this. "Well..." He turned around and started debating with himself. Alex's words had made him reconsider his plan. Alexander smirked and added, "Hey, it's too late now. Things are already in motion."

Hades sighed. "Alright, my restriction is off. Just as long as you don't interfere with my plan." He disappeared in a puff. Alex glared at the spot where Hades had been. That had been a close one.

* * *

Hercules came back into the lobby, looking dumbfounded. Noticing the absence of Megara, he asked, "Hey Alex. Do you know where Meg went?" Alex got up from where he was sitting. "Nope," he lied. "I was bored, so I took a bit of a nap." He yawned for emphasis. "Did you get the Olympus Stone?" Alex added.

The hero shook his head. "No, it was stolen." Alex stopped in mid-yawn. "What?" he asked in surprise. "Who took it?" Hercules sighed. "A man in black, with some white creatures."

Alex grunted and remained silent. "Someone you know?" Hercules asked. Alex shrugged and said, "Yeah, he's an acquaintance of mine. Not a very good one, but... why don't you check on Sora? Maybe he knows something." Hercules found this subject change a little strange, but he went into the arena anyway.

Alex was bored just sitting here, so he stepped outside. After standing there and thinking, Phil came out of the Coliseum. "Oh, you're Alex, huh?" Alexander nodded. "I see I've already been introduced. You're Phil?"

The short satyr nodded back. "Well, I've got work to do, so I'll see you later." He walked by Alex and headed toward...

"The Underworld?" Alex asked, seeing that Phil was heading down the staircase. Alex followed.

* * *

Alex looked around the Underworld entrance. Nothing seemed different, except for the definitely non-suspicious guy in the black coat near the blue flames to the left...

Alex was surprised. A guy in a black coat! And Phil was headed for him! Alex started running.

The guy in the black coat stretched out his hand. A bunch of water came out of nowhere and splashed onto the flames, dousing them to nothing. Phil walked up to the guy. "Hey, where are you going?"

The black coat guy turned around, obviously surprised. He kicked the satyr down, who promptly blacked out, and looked over to Alex. "Not you again!" the guy groaned. Alex hung his head as he recognized the voice. "Ugh, not you again... Demyx."

Demyx didn't lift his hood. "What are you doing here?"

Alex grinned. "I'm with Sora's group. I met up with him shortly after I kicked your butt back in Twilight Town."

The Nobody reacted, surprised again. "You mean... Roxas is near?" Alex groaned. "In one sense or another. He's back together with Sora now. He can't respond to you guys now. Only Sora can."

Demyx sighed, lifting his hood and revealing his head. "I told them they were sending the wrong guy again..."

Alex summoned the Lockshield. "Which reminds me... Didn't you steal the Olympus Stone?"

Demyx flinched, and held out the Olympus Stone. It was Alex's turn for a surprised reaction. "Want it?" Demyx taunted, getting an idea. "Well, bring Roxas to me!" He started running to the cavern. Alex didn't follow, first attending to Phil. "_Cure_."

Phil slowly got up as his strength returned. "Ooh... ohh..."

Alex helped him up. "You okay?" Phil shook his head. "Nope, that guy in the black coat was here, and next thing I know..."

"You're seeing stars," Alex finished. "I saw." Phil was shocked, but soon became serious. "Well, let's keep that between you and me, got it?"

Alex grinned. "My lips are sealed. Now, I'm going to go after that guy. He stole the Olympus Stone. If Sora and company come by, tell them I went into the caves." He ran after Demyx before Phil could say anything.

* * *

Alexander fought his way through most of the caves. Alone. "Good grief, Alex," he muttered to himself. "You are just plain stupid. Couldn't you have at least waited for Sora and the others?!" By now, the Underworld curse and the Heartless were getting to him. It had been rather foolish to charge into the cavern by himself. He was still alive, but weakened.

"Good question," a voice said behind him. Alex looked back. "Sora! Donald! Goofy!"

The trio walked up to him. "Why did you go on ahead?" Donald demanded. Alex put up his hands defensively again. "I saw Demyx go on ahead. I figured you guys were still busy, so I chased after him myself. It was stupid of me, I know, but..."

Goofy patted his shoulder. "It's fine. We gotta find Meg for now. You were just doing your best." This seemed to calm the tension between them. They walked up the slope to the atrium. There was Demyx.

Demyx turned to face them. "Roxas?" he asked, seeing Sora. "Roxas?"

Sora was annoyed. "I'm Sora. Roxas can't answer you right now, and I doubt he would want to talk to you guys anyway."

Demyx pulled back his hood and pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket. "'If the subject fails to respond, use aggression to liberate his true disposition...'" Demyx sighed. "Right. Boy, did they send the wrong guy for this one..." He put the piece of paper back in his pocket and pulled out the Olympus Stone in the other.

Goofy pointed at it. "So you're the thief!"

Demyx held up the stone. "Now that's just rude!" The stone flashed, and a bright light surrounded the Nobody for the moment. "Oh crud," Alex muttered. Now Demyx had a little advantage this time. Demyx summoned his sitar.

"Dance water dance!" he shouted again. About a hundred water forms appeared. Again, they probably only had a little time to finish them off. Alex, having done this before, grabbed one of the water forms and thrashed it around. It hit more water forms and made them shatter. Sora and the others followed his example and grabbed the water forms.

Soon, all the water forms were gone, and Demyx was beaten at his own game again. He sighed as darkness surrounded him. "Roxas, come back to us." He disappeared. Alex lowered the Lockshield. "The guy can't fight at all, can he? That's the second time I've beaten the snot out of him."

Donald walked up to where Demyx once stood and picked up the Olympus Stone off the floor. He walked back to the others and gave the stone to Sora. Sora held it up. It flashed again, and light surrounded the quartet in the same manner that it had done to Demyx. They all felt as if a burden had been lifted off their shoulders.

Alex grabbed the stone and gazed at it. "That's pretty powerful stuff." He put it in his pocket and muttered, "Let's go." They all ran through the big door in the atrium.

* * *

There was a huge stone with the figure of Megara on the front and a keyhole in the center. It locked up a pillar of black and blue darkness. Sora pointed his Keyblade at it and unlocked it. A bright flash filled up the whole area, and the rock was gone. There was a pillar of light instead. "Meg!" Donald shouted. "Almost there," Sora remarked. They all stepped into the depression.

Suddenly, they appeared in a big cavern. There was Meg, and Hades was next to her. "Gee," Hades said in mock appreciation, "thank you so much!" After a moment, he muttered, "Gotta go," and disappeared in a puff of smoke. "Hey Meg!" Alex shouted, waving. Megara smiled, but then said, "Behind you!"

Everyone turned around and jumped back. There was Pete, and a bunch of Hook Bat Heartless. "Aw, what's the matter?" Pete teased as the quartet brought out their weapons. "Can't fight in the Underworld? Boo-hoo!" Pete laughed.

Alex held out the Olympus Stone. "Better think again!" He put it back in his pocket and got into his stance. "Charge!" Pete shouted. The Hook Bats surrounded them, but the quartet took them all out. Pete summoned more Heartless. The four of them were busy trying to protect Megara, and weren't able to focus on the Heartless and Pete properly.

"There's too many!" Sora yelled. Facing Pete and his Heartless down. Pete was about to order his minions to charge again, but some Hook Bats collided with him from behind. Hercules ran up to them. "Sorry I'm late." Pete got up, but Pegasus came down and clopped Pete on the head, making him go down stunned again. Sora cut Meg's bonds, and Hercules put her on Pegasus.

"You guys get Meg out of here," the hero ordered. "I'll meet you guys up at the Coliseum."

Sora was confused. "What are you going to do?"

Hercules smirked and jabbed his thumb back to Pete. "I'm going to show these guys what happens when they mess with a true hero."

They were reassured by this, and so they ran out of the cavern. Pete tried to follow, but Hercules got in his way.

* * *

They all reappeared back at the lock area, and Pegasus landed next to the quartet. "I'm not leaving him," Meg insisted. "Look, even Wonderboy has his limits. He can't keep winning forever."

"Then we'll go back him up!" Sora suggested. "Get Meg out of here!" Donald shouted to Pegasus. The winged horse flew out of sight, along with Megara.

Alex and the others went back and appeared next to Hercules. Sora and Hercules nodded at each other, and faced Pete and his Heartless. Alexander felt a slight rumbling beneath him. "The cavern is going to collapse!" They had to beat Pete before that happened.

Sora jumped up and started attacking Pete. Donald and Goofy focused on the Hook Bats. Pete formed a barrier around himself. "Ha, Pete's invincible!" he shouted. Alex remembered a reaction command. He jumped up to the top of Pete's barrier. "Herc!" he shouted, and swung his shield at the barrier. When it hit, it started rolling toward Hercules. The hero then punched the barrier, breaking it and sending Pete flying.

By now, the Heartless were taken care of. Pete got up. "Grr... I'll get you pipsqueaks for this later! This place is starting to give me the creeps." He ran out of the cavern. The rumbling took on a greater intensity. They all ran out of the cavern as well. Alex looked back to see Hades standing there.

"Could today possibly get any better?" Hades shouted. He looked back to Alex. "I owe you one, Lockshielder."

Alex folded his arms. "I don't expect to be repaid."

Hades smirked. "Good." Alex ran out of the cavern.

* * *

They came back to the Underworld entrance, meeting up with Meg, Pegasus, and Phil. "Well, well, well. You really blew it this time, didn't you?" Hades' voice asked from overhead. He appeared behind the group. "So, Blunderboy, you're just a washout after all."

Sora grinned. "No one likes a sore loser." Hades glared at him. "Cut it, Keyblader!"

Hercules said, "Then let me." He stepped forward, paused, and then grinned. "No one likes a sore loser, Hades."

Hades sighed and started pacing. "Yeah, yeah. Styx and stones. Well, why don't you check on that Hydra you neglected to take out? I hear things are really **falling apart** up there." He disappeared. "Sorry to go so soon, but I have another diversion to attend to."

Phil pointed at the staircase. "To the coliseum!" Hercules raced ahead.

* * *

Seeing what was before him, Hercules fell to his knees. "I blew it." The coliseum had been completely wrecked. Nothing was left now, thanks to the Hydra. Speaking of which, it was still in the arena wrecking things. Phil and Meg ran to him. "It's not your fault," Meg insisted. "Hades was right," Hercules continued, pounding his fist on the ground. "I'm just a... a washout." Phil tried to snap him out of it. "Come on, champ! I didn't train you to think like that!"

Hercules looked back up at the coliseum. The color seemed to be drained from his body. He lost his strength. Meg and Phil helped him to the sidelines. Alex pointed ahead. "Look out!" The Hydra stepped over the rubble and faced the quartet, who brought out their weapons. Phil came up to them and got into a weird stance. "Don't suppose you have room for one more?" Pegasus and Meg also stood beside them. "We're in!" Meg added.

The battle started. The quartet started to attack the head, which would often stoop down to their level. Phil, Meg, and Pegasus went somewhere else. Goofy blocked an attack from the tail, Donald healed them after taking damage, and Sora whacked the head of the Hydra.

Soon, the enemy was stunned enough that the head stood straight up. Alex got an idea. Using speed he didn't know he had, he cut through the neck of the beast, decapitating the Hydra. The neck stuck into the ground, and three new heads appeared in the area and started attacking.

"Alex!" Phil shouted. He jumped up and down from a piece of rubble above the Hydra. "Get on the Hydra's back!" Alex immediately did so, jumping up to the scaly back. Phil threw a large urn up into the air. Alex jumped up, caught it, and whacked it down with the Lockshield. It smashed into the Hydra's back, stunning all three of the heads. Sora promptly eliminated the heads, cutting them off in the same fashion that Alex had.

After a moment, the Hydra pulled out its head, or heads... all seven of them! Pegasus swooped down from the side. Sora jumped up onto him and started flying around. As he passed a head, he slashed it with his Keyblade. After slashing all seven heads, the Hydra was stunned. Alex got under the heads and decapitated them all. The Hydra was done for. It collapsed.

* * *

"Give yourself a chance to rest," Meg ordered Hercules as they sat on the remaining steps. She got up and faced the quartet. "Sora, Donald, Goofy, Alex, I owe you big time."

"Hey, Alex," Phil muttered. Alex looked down at him. "Yes?"

Phil looked flustered for a moment, but then said, "...We can't do it officially now, but I'm dubbing you a junior hero."

Alex was excited. "Really?" Phil nodded. "Your fighting skills are pretty good, but..."

"...I don't have what it takes to be a true hero yet," Alex finished. "Well, that's better than nothing."

Meg looked a little doubtful. "When did you guys make hero?" Sora shrugged it off. "We'll save that for another time. We have to hit the road." Megara smiled. "Don't be strangers."

"Oh right!" Sora realized. "The Olympus Stone!" he pulled the stone out of his pocket and held it out. Hercules slowly got up and limped over to Sora. Just as he was about to take it, the Olympus Stone flashed with a familiar light. Sora looked back to Goofy and nodded. As Sora pulled out his Keyblade, there was a flash of light. Alex knew that a new path was open.

* * *

**Disclaimer: I only own Alexander and the Lockshield. Every other element of this story belongs to their respective owners. Namely Square-Enix and Disney.**


	13. Dance to the Death

Chapter 13  
Dance to the Death

Alex looked out the gummi ship's cockpit. There wasn't a path leading forward after Olympus Coliseum. "Great, where do we go now?" Donald whined.

Alex jabbed his thumb back at the path behind them. "Well, the new path actually starts at Hollow Bastion. It's on the other side."

Sora reluctantly turned the ship around and started heading the other way. As they passed Hollow Bastion, Goofy pointed out the window. "Look!" he shouted. "The path to Twilight Town is gone!"

Everyone looked where Goofy was pointing. Indeed, the path and the world had disappeared from view. Alex looked a little worried. They wouldn't be going back to Twilight Town for a while.

After a moment, they continued on. "So, Alex," Sora began, trying to break the silence that had suddenly fallen upon the ship, "what world are we going to next?"

Alex pointed out the window at the world ahead. "You can see it now. This is Goofy and Donald's world: Disney Castle."

* * *

_Meanwhile, inside Disney Castle..._

Queen Minnie stared at the skewed row of books in the library. "Hmm..." she mumbled, "I wonder where that old album could be?"

"Your Majesty!" Chip and Dale came running to her as fast as they could. They started jumping excitedly. "Something's wrong in the Hall of the Cornerstone!" Chip yelled.

Minnie followed the two gummi engineers to the Hall of the Cornerstone. She gasped as she saw the predicament in front of her. Looking solemn, she said, "Oh, King Mickey, please come back soon. The castle is in danger! Donald, Goofy... Where are you?" She looked up at the ceiling as if she was looking past it, hoping to see them in the sky above Disney Castle.

Fortunately, indeed they were.

* * *

The quartet walked around the gummi ship hangar. "So this is your castle?" Sora asked. He looked back at Donald and Goofy, who were looking around curiously. "Must be nice to be home, huh?" Sora remarked, completely unaware of the two Disney characters' suspicion.

"Hmm..." Donald grumbled. "Something doesn't feel quite right," Goofy concurred.

Alex looked up at the stairs ahead. Right on schedule was Chip and Dale, the two gummi ship chipmunk engineers, who came running down the stairs. "You're back!" Dale shouted. "The castle's in danger! We need your help!"

"Queen Minnie needs you! She's in the library!" Chip yelled. Alex and the others raced out of the hangar.

Alex pushed the door open. He was surprised to find himself in a topiary garden of some sort. He didn't take five steps before he was surrounded by Shadow, Soldier, and Minute Bomb Heartless. Everyone brought out their weapons.

A Minute Bomb jumped at him, and Alexander instinctively rolled out of the way. The Heartless exploded, making the other Minute Bombs explode, and destroying the Shadows and Soldiers around them. "That was easy," he said, before more Heartless appeared out of nowhere.

* * *

They finally got inside the castle. They were in a big hallway, with an equally big door in the middle. But the door was sealed by a purple light and the Mickey emblem. There was a much more comfortably sized door at the end that probably led to the library. But the quartet wasn't worried about that right now. The bigger problem at hand was the immense amount of Shadows.

"Crud," Alex cursed under his breath as he bashed a Shadow. "Y'think we oughta use the Drives again?" Goofy reasoned.

Alex got an idea. "No, I'll take care of it." As soon as he wasn't surrounded, he shouted, "Darkness!" His head and limbs snapped back, and light shot out from his body. Then his whole body was covered in darkness, and his eyes turned to the bright yellow of a Heartless. Darkness flowed from his body, and he looked ready to fight at any second. He had gone into Anti Form. The trio was surprised; they hadn't expected this from Alex.

His Lockshield was gone, but he knew he had his claws and feet. He ran on all fours through the hall, swiping madly at the Heartless that were in his way. His speed and attack power had increased too, but his defense had suffered. He started warping all around the hall, trying to get a quick attack to all the enemies. Lastly, he appeared above the Heartless, and beams of darkness shot out from his body. This attack slashed up the big groups.

Alex landed on the ground and reverted, catching his breath. All the Heartless were taken care of, but more would be on the way. The trio ran up to him. "What was that?" Sora demanded. Alex grinned. "That... was Anti Form. Something I can use at will." Without another word, they walked into the library.

* * *

They approached Queen Minnie. Donald and Goofy saluted. "Your Majesty! Queen Minnie! We're back!" Donald reported. Sora stood between them. "Hi there," he greeted her.

Minnie gave Sora a funny look. Donald pulled Sora down by the shoulder, forcing him to give the royalty his deference. "Excuse him. This is our friend, Sora."

Minnie gasped. "Oh, so you are Sora! The King told me all about you in his letters. He said you're a very brave young man." Sora grinned as he took the compliment.

The Queen looked over to Alex. "Then you must be Alexander. The King mentioned you, too. He said you've been a big help to these three."

Alex shrugged. "Do you know where the King is now?" Minnie shook her head. "I'm afraid not."

Donald spoke up. "What are Heartless doing in your castle, Your Majesty?"

Minnie looked surprised. "Oh, so those are the Heartless." She paused, and nodded to herself. "Right, there's something you all need to see. Would you please escort me to the audience chamber?"

The four of them saluted. "Hut!"

Minnie gasped again. "Oh no! I forgot to warn everyone else in the castle about the danger! We need to make sure everyone's hidden somewhere safe!"

Alex groaned. "Which one do we do first?"

Goofy patted Alex's back. "We just need to split up, that's all." Sora agreed. "I'll go warn everyone about the danger."

"No, Sora," Donald declined, "you'll just get lost." Minnie chuckled. Sora sighed. "Then... I'll stay with the queen."

Alex agreed with this. "Yeah, Donald and Goofy know the castle much better then you and I. We'll escort... Her Majesty to the audience chamber." It was clear that Alex was uncomfortable with formalities.

With the plan set, Donald and Goofy left. Sora looked over to Minnie. "The audience chamber, right ma'am?" Minnie nodded.

* * *

Alex, Sora, and Minnie left the library. They cut through the Heartless in the way and came to the huge door. "As soon as the trouble started," Minnie explained. "I made sure to seal this room." She held out her hand, and the seal dissipated. A smaller door opened in front of them. "Shall we?"

As they walked in, Sora looked around for Heartless. There didn't seem to be anything... until a bunch of Bolt Towers dropped down from above. "Let's get to the throne!" Alex suggested. They slowly made their way across the huge audience chamber. Their main goal was to protect Minnie, so they didn't go after the enemies.

Fortunately, Minnie wasn't useless. She had an uncanny control over light. She could shoot light orbs at enemies to push them back. Also, if Sora used his Keyblade as well, they could summon a pillar of light to push the enemies back a long way. Using these techniques, they made their way to the throne unharmed.

Sora and Alex looked back at the Heartless. "Gimme a break," Sora grumbled. Minnie stepped to the throne's side, looking for something. After a moment, she pressed a button under the left arm of the throne. The whole platform started moving to the side, and an immense amount of light shone from under it.

When the light subsided, all the Heartless were gone. "Woah!" Sora exclaimed. He turned to see Alex holding his head in pain. "What's wrong?"

Alex shook his head. "I don't know, but I've got this splitting headache..." He sighed and walked back to Minnie.

The Queen started walking down the revealed staircase. "This next room is called the Hall of the Cornerstone," she explained. "This castle has always been protected from evil worlds thanks to the Cornerstone of Light we have in this room."

Sora was confused. "The Cornerstone... of Light?" He shrugged and followed Minnie to the Hall. Donald and Goofy came to them and joined them in the room.

* * *

Alex looked around. "I guess it wasn't always like this.. surrounded by a humongous thorny expanse." There were huge thorns around the whole room. The Cornerstone of Light was in the center. But the very center of the bright sphere seemed to have a dark shade about it. "The Cornerstone of Light... look at it now," Minnie moaned.

Suddenly, a bunch of dark green flames popped up out of nowhere in front of the Cornerstone of Light. Maleficent's image appeared in its place. "Maleficent!" Donald shouted.

"Well, what have we here?" Maleficent mused. "The retched Keyblader and his pitiful lackeys!" He looked at Alexander. "And look, the real-worlder with the Lockshield is here, too."

Alex was immensely surprised. Another person seemed to know him in advance. "How do you know about me?"

Maleficent laughed. "Certain people become self-aware when someone from the real world is an interference. Turns out I am one of them."

Alex remained silent, glaring at her. "What are you doing here, Maleficent?" Minnie demanded.

"I'm merely on a property venture," Maleficent explained. "I want this castle for my own! But it's a bit too 'bright' for what I have in mind," she added, turning to the Cornerstone. "It seems I'll just have to fill every room with my personal touch of darkness!" She tried to touch the Cornerstone, but she was repelled by a bright barrier.

Sora pulled out his Keyblade. Minnie declared, "You won't get away with this!"

Maleficent chuckled. "Ooh, how frightening." Donald charged at her, but she disappeared. The duck landed face first onto the ground, grumbling incoherently.

"Something like this has never happened before," Minnie said worriedly. "I searched the records in the library, but I couldn't find a single clue."

Goofy got an idea. "Then we'll just have to ask someone who knows lotsa stuff that isn't in any book!"

Donald got it. "Merlin the Wizard!" Minnie immediately liked the idea. "Merlin should definitely be able to help!"

Goofy smiled. "We saw him at Hollow Bastion, right?" Sora nodded. Alex held up his hand. "I've still got a headache, so you guys go on without me. I'll stay here and guard this room."

Sora was a little confused by this suggestion, but didn't question it. Sora, Donald, and Goofy left to seek Merlin.

* * *

Alex stared at the Cornerstone of Light. He still had a splitting headache. Perhaps the flash of light from earlier had something to do with it? He held his head with one hand, and reached out to touch the Cornerstone with the other. His hand didn't find a barrier. When he touched the Cornerstone of Light, a bright flash occurred, and Alex shut his eyes.

When he opened them, he found that he wasn't at the Hall of the Cornerstone anymore. In fact, he was at the Station of Awakening again! "What the...?!" he exclaimed, then realized that he could speak and be heard this time. He looked around the stained glass platform again, looking for what he was brought here for. There was a figure on the other side of the platform.

The figure turned around to face him, and he gasped. It was himself! It was if he was looking through a mirror! Except that this guy had weird dark green armor on. "Well, it looks like you finally found me out," his copy said sarcastically. Alex was shocked. "Who are you?"

The copy laughed. "Who knows? But, hey, for argument's sake, let's call me Joumae." Then his hand was covered in darkness for a second.

"A Lockshield?" Alex realized. A Lockshield was in Joumae's hand, but it had a different design. It was a solid dark gold with the silver Mickey emblem in the middle. There was still a small keyhole in the center. Alex summoned his own Lockshield.

Joumae charged at him, and Alex barely blocked the attack. Rolling to the side, he demanded, "What are you?"

Joumae laughed again. "Beat me, and I'll tell you!" He jumped up really high and slashed down at Alex. Alexander jumped to the side and tried slashing at Joumae's back. But Joumae grabbed his Lockshield with his free hand and threw it to the side. Alex jumped backward and ran to his Lockshield. But Joumae got there first, putting his foot on the weapon. The copy held his Lockshield's sharp edge to Alexander's neck. "Yield to me."

Alex remained silent. Stetching forth his hand, his Lockshield disappeared and reappeared in his hand. Because Joumae had been standing on it, he lost his balance for a second. Alex took the opportunity and slashed through him with all his might.

There was silence for a second. Joumae chuckled, and it slowly turned into a laugh. Both Lockshields vanished in a puff of inky black smoke. Joumae walked past him as his laugh subsided. "It's funny. I'm fighting myself. Or rather, yourself. Or whatever!"

A bright flash filled up the space around them.

* * *

"Alex! Alexander!" a voice called out to him.

Alex opened his eyes. His hand was still on the Cornerstone. Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Merlin were there. Merlin grabbed Alex's wrist and pulled him back. "That's a very dangerous thing to do," Merlin scolded him, "especially because you wield a dark weapon. The darkness in your heart, and that of the Lockshield, could be isolated by that light and start acting up."

Alexander pulled back his hand gave Merlin a funny look. Then he started laughing. "Ha! Too late!" he managed to mutter, and continued laughing. Everyone was confused.

Minnie walked up to him. "I was worried. You touched the Cornerstone and just..." She was at a loss for words. "I kept calling your name, but you wouldn't answer!"

Alex sighed, all mirth having left him now. "Sorry. I was just testing a theory."

Merlin shot a meaningful look at Alexander, but then said, "Well, enough of that. Time for the task at hand." He waved his hands around a little, and a bright door appeared in the room.

"What's that?" Sora asked, indicating the doorway. "That, my boy," Merlin replied, "is a gateway to a very special world. Alex, you would probably make more sense to them, why don't you explain?"

Alex sighed. "Okay. Apparently, our enemies are messing with that world, and that affects this world here. We need to find the Cornerstone and make sure it's okay. Not only that, but there's probably a gate like this one that our enemy is using. Sora, you need to find that door and lock it with your Keyblade."

Sora nodded and was about to open the door. "Wait just a moment!" Merlin shouted. He cleared his throat as Sora walked back to his friends. "Now, the nature of that world will tempt you to do something dark. You must avoid that temptation at all costs!"

Donald wondered, "What kind of temptation?" Merlin shrugged off the question. "You'll find out soon enough."

Merlin faced Alexander, becoming deadly serious. "Now this is where you come in. I fear that the enemy's gateway is not the only reason the Heartless are here. The Heartless themselves might have nearly opened a Dark Corridor. I assume Master Yen Sid has already informed you of them." Alex confirmed this with a quick nod.

"While Sora looks for the gate," Merlin explained, "you find that Dark Corridor and lock it with your Lockshield. They normally take a long time to develop, but it seems that it's almost open. Be on your guard."

"Is that the end of your briefing?" Alex asked impatiently. Merlin sighed and nodded. Sora walked up to the door. "Okay, let's go!" Sora pulled open the door, and the quartet walked through.

**To be continued...**

* * *

**Disclaimer: I only own Alexander, Joumae, and the Lockshield. Every other element of this story belongs to their respective owners. Namely Square-Enix and Disney.**


	14. Monochrome Dreams

Chapter 14  
Monochrome Dreams

Alex flew out of the gate and landed unceremoniously on the ground. Sora, Donald, and Goofy were already there. "Another crash landing," Donald muttered. "That was terrible."

Alexander looked around. Everything was black and white, including themselves! Alex stood up and looked over his clothes. They, like everyone else's, had changed. Sora had reverted to a cartoony version of his costume from the first game, and Donald and Goofy were in costumes reminiscent of the old Disney cartoons they came from. Alex was wearing a t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers.

"Hey, there's the Cornerstone!" Sora pointed out. It was right in front of them, in the dead center of the hill they were on. Sora ran up to it, and saw that it was okay. He looked around, obviously confused. "What's going on? Everything's black and white!"

Donald looked at his clothes. "Hey, this is kinda like... um..."

Goofy also took a glance. "...Déjà vu?" Donald nodded. "Yeah, that's it!"

"Really?" Sora asked, turning to them. "Have you been here before?"

Just then, a fat black cat came running by. Alex recognized him as Pete from the Steamboat Willie cartoon. The others just recognized him as Pete. "Hey," he shouted to the quartet, "ya seen any bad guys around here?"

Sora, Donald, and Goofy pointed at Pete, who was immediately outraged. "Why I oughta...!" He looked ready to fight, but he backed off. "Gah, I don't have time for you punks right now. I have to find that runt what stole my steamboat!"

Pete started running toward the Pier. The trio chased after him. Alex was left by himself, which left him alone to think. He was still concerned about that Joumae guy. What was he?

_"It's funny. I'm fighting myself. Or rather, yourself. Or whatever!"_ Joumae's parting words had been. Merlin's words were also brought to his foremost thoughts: _"The darkness in your heart, and that of the Lockshield, could be isolated by that light and start acting up."_

Well, the scene that had taken place had resembled the scene that Sora went through at The World That Never Was when he fought against Roxas. But Alexander didn't have a Nobody. Even though his heart was mainly darkness right now, he had never actually become a Heartless. So what exactly was Joumae?

Alex finally realized that he was alone, and raced to the Pier.

* * *

"Sorry we attacked you like that, Cap'n Pete," Goofy apologized. Pete was on his backside, but he slowly got up. "Oh yeah? Well if you are, how about finding my steamboat?" he shouted angrily. There was a cracking sound, and Pete fell to his rump again. "My back!" The trio hurried to him and tried to calm him down.

Alex walked into the Pier area. Seeing Sora, he said, "What happened here?"

Pete was still angry. "I'll tell you what happened! These punks just came out of the blue and gave me a lickin'!" He looked at Alexander thoughtfully. "Are these your pals?"

Alex nodded slowly, and put on a sheepish grin. "Sorry about the trouble. They must have confused you for someone else they know." It wasn't a complete falsehood, but...

Alexander looked up at the completely gray sky. "So..." he muttered to himself, out of earshot of the others, "this is Timeless River."

* * *

The quartet stood in a circle. "I was sure that Pete was the villain," Sora grumbled. Goofy shrugged. "I guess not." Alexander sighed. "So you guys fought because of a totally wrong assumption?"

Donald glared at Alex. "Hey! Let's just focus on finding that gate, okay?" Sora turned to something he saw. "What's that?"

There was a big window just floating in the air. The quartet walked up to it. "I can't see a thing..." Sora muttered, trying to see what was beyond the curtain. Donald jumped up and pulled down on a rope, which lifted the curtain. There was nothing but a bright white light that quickly enveloped them all.

_There were Heartless all over Cornerstone Hill. There were also four window-type things floating next to them. The windows opened, let the Heartless in, and disappeared._

_The gate burst open, and Sora, Donald, and Goofy came flying out of it, landing flat on their stomachs. A few moments later, Alex flew out of the gate and landed unceremoniously on the ground. "Another crash landing," Donald muttered. "That was terrible."_

_Alexander looked around. "Hey, there's the Cornerstone!" Sora pointed out. Sora ran up to it, and saw that it was okay. He looked around, obviously confused. "What's going on? Everything's black and white!"_

_Donald looked at his clothes. "Hey, this is kinda like... um..." Goofy also took a glance. "...Déjà vu?" Donald nodded. "Yeah, that's it!"_

_"Really?" Sora asked, turning to them. "Have you been here before?"_

The quartet stood in a circle again, and the trio looked confused. "What was that?" Donald wondered. Alex thought about it for a while, but then it struck him. "...A flashback?"

"Heartless, going out..." Sora began. "...and us, comin' in," Goofy finished. Donald walked over to the curtain again, ready to pull the rope.

"Don't bother. It won't show anything else," Alex called after him. Donald sighed. Four windows appeared next to the Cornerstone of Light, most likely the same ones that the Heartless had entered. "Let's take out those Heartless!" Sora shouted. They jumped into the leftmost window, the one with the construction site design on it.

* * *

"What're they building here?" Sora wondered aloud. They were on a wooden platform, held up by a single rope, near the top of the construction site. "This would really be bad if the Heartless are here..." Alex remarked.

"How come?" Sora asked, turning to face Alex... but ending up face to face with a Heartless. "Watch out!" Donald yelled, far too late. Suddenly, a mouse swung down on a rope and kicked the Heartless out of the way.

"The King!" Sora shouted as Mickey landed on a steel beam overhead. "Gee, he looks kinda different now..." Goofy noted.

More Heartless appeared ahead of them. Alex's hand was covered in darkness for a second, and the Lockshield appeared. Getting into a fighting stance, he said, "To answer your question... if those Heartless cause too much mayhem, the rope will snap and this whole platform will fall!" This got everyone's attention. They had to defeat the Heartless quickly; that much was clear.

Alex started his charge, but the platform was **really** unstable. As soon as there was enough shaking, they were thrown into the air. Fortunately, this also effected the Heartless. Seeing the Heartless coming up toward him, Alex spun around with the Lockshield, slashing all of them that passed him. They were just small fry, so the rest of the battle went by quickly.

"How do you like that?" Sora taunted the nonexistent Heartless. Mickey ran up to him, shook his hand vigorously, waved and ran away. Donald saw something. "Look!" The other three turned, and they saw another window. Donald pulled on the rope, and they were enveloped by light like before.

_"Imbecile..." Maleficent muttered, staring over the edge of the ledge. "You managed to fail at everything." His gaze turned away from Maleficent, obviously ashamed. "And you thought you could take my place while I was away?"_

_He met Maleficent's eyes once again, for she was right in front of him. "There will be no place for you when our time comes!" She started walking away, pausing only to grumble, "Useless imbecile..." before disappearing from view._

_"B-but..." he tried to say, "but I..."_

They found themselves at Cornerstone Hill again. "Someone was unhappy," Donald remarked.

"What do you think that was?" Goofy wondered. Alexander was silent about this.

Sora spoke up. "I don't know. Let's just focus on clearing out those Heartless for now." They all jumped into the second window, which had a picture of a giant being held down by ropes.

* * *

There was a town, and there was the quartet. But there was something different. The size ratio between the town and the quartet was reversed. They were giants!

"The town's shrunk!" Sora cried out. Goofy looked around. "Or do you think maybe we got bigger?"

Alex walked up to the big tower in the middle. "Look at the toy cannons!" he said with a chuckle. He admired the tower for a moment, but then he saw Mickey. "The King!" Donald shouted.

Goofy saw him too. "I wonder what he's trying to say?" Mickey pointed at the gate at the end of town. There was an Aeroplane Heartless. "There're Heartless!" Sora pointed out the obvious again. Two more Aeroplanes joined it, and Heartless appeared all over the town. Alex recognized the danger. "We can't let them destroy the town!"

Alexander looked up at the tower. Then he remembered the reaction command from the game: Stomp Bomb. Alex jumped up and bounced off the tower. The cannons started firing at the Heartless. It didn't do much damage, but it stunned them long enough for Sora, Donald, and Goofy to get rid of them.

"That was weird..." Sora mumbled as he lowered his Keyblade. Mickey ran up to him, shook his hand violently, and ran off again. Goofy turned away from him. "Hey, look!" he said, pointing at another window.

_"Aw, she didn't have to go and say that," he whined. "I'm a lot more things than useless. Why, when I was startin' out..." His eyes focused on the sky outside the chamber, as if they were welling up with tears. "I miss the good ol' days. What I wouldn't give to go back in time..." He sounded like he was about to cry. "What I wouldn't give..."_

_Suddenly, a bright flash happened behind him. "Huh?" He looked behind himself and did a take. There was a large white door, shining with light. Slowly, he reached out his large hands and opened the door. "Wha– I think that's my..."_

"A door, similar to the one Merlin summoned..." Alex muttered, once they were out of the vision and back at Cornerstone Hill. "Then it should lead here, right?" Sora queried. The four of them were silent. "Well, there's two more areas to clear out," Goofy reasoned. Donald nodded. "Let's get going!" They went into the third window, which had an image of a burning building.

* * *

The huge apartment complex in front of them was shaking around in a cartoony way, while a stationary fire nearby shot flames into the open windows. "A fire!" Sora pointed out.

Mickey ran up to the fire, flailing around at a loss of what to do. "We gotta help him!" Goofy shouted. Out of nowhere, Shadows surrounded Sora. They brought out their weapons again.

While Sora and the others exterminated the Heartless, Alex focused on limiting the mayhem going on. He approached a fire and shouted, "_Blizzard_!" Ice crystals were unleashed on the fire, which was quickly extinguished. He was about to do the same to another, but a Hot Rod Heartless rammed him out of the way. That Heartless was quickly exterminated by Donald's magic, and all the Heartless were gone.

The building stopped shaking, and the fire dissipated. Mickey shook Sora's hand yet again and ran off. Alex looked to the side, and there was another window on cue.

_"Fascinating," Maleficent remarked. "This appears to be a door to the past. And look, there's the Cornerstone of Light." He looked up at the symbol on the top of the doorway in wonder. "The Cornerstone... of Light?"_

_Maleficent nodded. "Yes, that retched sphere is the same thing that prevents us from entering that castle." She turned to him. "I will give you one last chance." He clapped his hands together. "Thank you!" Maleficent smirked and turned back to the door. "We'll have to proceed with the utmost of care..."_

"Maleficent!" Donald yelled. Sora nodded. "She must have known all along!"

Goofy was confused. "She said that door led to the past..." Donald shook his head. "No, it leads here." They were silent for a moment.

Alex sighed, and pointed at the last window, the one with the symbol of a house with Mickey's emblem. "I figure it'll all become clear if we take care of that last place."

* * *

Mickey ran through his house, obviously worried. There was a black and gray vortex in the center of the room, sucking everything up! "We have to make sure that not all the furniture disappears!" Alex shouted. Three Rapid Thruster Heartless appeared in front of the vortex, and Mickey ran away.

Alex ran past the Heartless and slashed the vortex a couple times. The hole shrunk and stopped sucking, which stalled the mayhem for a while. They they continued to bash, slash, and beat up the Heartless until Mickey's home was safe.

Mickey once more shook Sora's hand and disappeared from view. "Hey!" Goofy pointed out the window in the back of the room. Donald opened it once more.

_"Listen, through that door they're about to start construction on Disney Castle," Maleficent explained to him. "But until then, their precious Cornerstone of Light remains unprotected. You know what to do?" He was a little unsure. "Uh..."_

_"Go then," Maleficent ordered, "and don't even think about failing me again!" She started walking away. Pete's ears perked up as the idea struck him. "Oh, then all I have to do is smash that Cornerstone to smithereens!" Pete laughed maniacally. He started to open the door. "But first, I gotta get my steamboat back."_

"So it was Pete after all!" Sora realized. Goofy also put two and two together. "Wait, if that was a door to the past... that means we're in the past!" Alex nodded at this.

Sora and Donald looked excited. "And if we're in the past..." Sora began.

"...we can change the future!" Donald finished.

Alex and Goofy looked worried. "Hey, that's the last thing we want to do!" Alex shouted. "Remember what Merlin told us?" Goofy asked. "We have to resist temptation no matter what!"

Sora put his hands behind his head. Donald feigned innocence. "Ah, I was just joking!" Sora nodded. "Who would want to change the future anyway?" he asked with equal innocence.

Goofy looked at the path to the waterway. There was Pete from the present, running down the path. "That's the Pete we know!" Alex said with a grin. Donald turned around. "Ack!" he cried. The others looked. The Cornerstone was gone! "Oh no! That means the castle's going to fill up with darkness!" Goofy shouted. "We gotta hurry!" Sora agreed.

The past Pete came running by. "Wait!" Sora yelled at him. Pete stopped. "I don't have time for you punks right now. I finally found the guy what stole my steamboat!"

Sora nodded. "Yeah, it was you!" Alex slapped his forehead.

Pete grinned. "Yeah, me!" Then he did a take. "No, no, wait! It's not me, he just only looks like me!" He ran after the present Pete.

Sora held his head and moaned. "Argh, which is it?!" The trio ran after him. Alex shook his head and muttered in a fourth-wall-breaking manner, "They don't handle time paradoxes well, do they?"

Alex looked back to where the Cornerstone once stood. Between the four wooden supports was a... "A Keyhole!" Alex shouted. He had almost completely forgotten about it! He pointed his Lockshield at the Keyhole. A bright beam shot out from the center and entered the Keyhole. A clicking sound was heard, and the Keyhole disappeared. "One job done," he muttered as he ran to the waterway.

* * *

"Listen, fella, your future depends on me, so get outta my way!" the present Pete shouted. He punched the past Pete all the way over to the wharf. Pete jumped onto the steamboat. The Cornerstone was in a wooden cage being towed by the boat.

Seeing the quartet, he taunted them. "Ha! You're too late!" He started picking up random objects and throwing them at them. Alex and Sora parried the incoming projectiles and whacked them back at Pete, who took the hits instead. After five hits or so, he collapsed onto the cage, and the steamboat, by some weird coincidence, steered itself near the shore. Alex jumped onto the boat and started whacking the cage. It was sturdy, but it broke after a few hits.

Pete landed in the water. As soon as he resurfaced, the edge of the platform the Cornerstone was on bumped his head, and he went under once more. Donald looked around for any catches, but he shouted. "It's the Cornerstone!" Pete got out of the water, gave the Cornerstone a glance, and reluctantly went to the wharf. "Pete's headed for the doorway!" Donald looked back at the Cornerstone, and they all chased after Pete.

* * *

As Alexander ran into the wharf, he noticed both forms of Pete fighting each other again. The past Pete punched the present Pete, who quickly countered and sent him flying. The trio ran up to the present Pete, but the past Pete shoved them out of the way to return to the fight. Alex had wisely stayed out of the way of that one. But he brought out his weapon all the same.

Pete fought no differently from before. He still had his bombs and his temporary invulnerability. The past Pete helped only a little. But as the past Pete was knocked back by the present Pete, Alex grabbed his tail and swung him back to the present Pete, who was knocked down by the returned momentum.

The battle was soon over. Pete grumbled and started running off. He held up his hands to the sky, and a doorway to the present appeared. Pete quickly ran through it. "Sora!" Donald shouted. "Yeah, I know," Sora replied. He pointed his Keyblade at the doorway. A keyhole appeared on the door. A bright beam shot out from the Keyblade and struck the keyhole. The keyhole disappeared, but the door did not, much to Alex's surprise.

The doorway was surrounded by a ring of darkness. "What's that?" Alex wondered. Then the Lockshield summoned itself into his hand.

**_Get going, idiot!_** a voice scolded him in his head, making him wince. "Huh?" he muttered. He looked back to the trio, who confirmed that they hadn't said a word. Looking back to the doorway, he got an idea. _Is that you, Joumae?_ he "said" in his mind. **_So what if I am? You have a job to do right now!_**

Alex smirked. That definitely was Joumae.

He held out the Lockshield in front of him. Suddenly, everyone else disappeared. The Lockshield flashed for a moment, and a shining image of the Heartless emblem appeared beneath his feet. He felt some kind of wind blow against him as his surroundings disappeared in a flash of light. He looked around, and found himself in a bright starry space. Although it was still black and white, so he couldn't admire it properly.

A dark beam shot out from the doorway, which was still there. The beam formed a large keyhole in the space above him. Alex looked into the keyhole and gasped. Right behind the opening was a huge mangled mass of Shadows, inching their way to the opening! Alex quickly pointed the Lockshield at the keyhole. A halo surrounded his weapon for a moment, then it closed in and shot out a beam at the keyhole. When it collided, a dark green wall formed itself and covered up the opening. Once that was done, the light flashed again.

Alex was standing back at the wharf again. "Oh, so those must be the Dark Corridors that Yen Sid talked about." **_You got that right. About time,_** Joumae muttered in his head. Donald cheered. "Then this place is safe!"

Pete (it was the past one, so there wouldn't be any more confusion) was confused. "Okay, I want some answers here. Who was that punk?"

"Don't you get it?" Sora shouted. "That was you fro uhh fuuherr!" his voice trailed off as Goofy's large hands covered up his mouth. He had meant to say "from the future". "Sora, that's a secret!"

Pete was still confused. "Secret? What kind of secret?" He gave up. "Oh, never mind. Well, sorry for being so mean before."

Donald pointed at him. "Well don't make it a habit!" The others laughed. Pete gave them a funny look, but then said, "To repay you all, I'll let you pilot my steamboat. Best little craft on the river!" The trio cheered. "My deck hand Mickey's late anyways."

* * *

Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Alexander stood at the front of the ship. Sora turned the helm to steer the ship, obviously getting a kick out of that. Donald jumped up and pulled on a rope overhead, which sounded the horn at the top of the ship.

Alex looked out the window and at the back of the ship, where they were towing the Cornerstone back to the hill. There was Mickey, lounging on the back of the platform. Alex waved at the mouse, and Mickey waved back.

* * *

The quartet put the Cornerstone of Light back in its place. Alex didn't tell them about the Keyhole that had been dormant under it. "Whew!" Sora whined. That Cornerstone had been heavy. "The castle should be safe now!" Goofy reasoned. Donald looked flustered. "Wait, as long as we're here..."

Sora and Goofy knew what Donald implied. "Donald!" Sora shouted. Donald tried to look innocent, but failed. Sora and Goofy grabbed the duck's arms and dragged Donald over to the gate. Alex opened the door, and they flung Donald through. Then the other three stepped through the gate.

* * *

In the Hall of the Cornerstone, the door to Timeless River suddenly burst open. "Waugh!" Donald cried as he landed on the floor in Disney Castle. Alex rubbed his eyes as they went back to the present. Seeing black and white for a long while like that made the present seem really bright.

"The thorns have disappeared!" Minnie cheered, turning to the quartet. Merlin was there still. "Good job! ...Now, you didn't do anything reckless while you were there?"

Donald was still keeping the innocent act. "Of course not!" Alex, Sora, and Goofy laughed a little, which was rewarded with a glare from Donald.

Alex quietly admired the Reflect element that Pete had dropped as it melted into his skin. Daisy entered the hall reluctantly, and Donald noticed her. "Daisy!" Disney Castle's lady-in-waiting walked over to Donald. "Who's that?" Sora asked. Goofy grinned. "Daisy is Donald's very special sweetheart."

Daisy put her hands on her hips, suddenly going from meek lady to nagging girlfriend in an instant. "Donald! You missed our date again!" Donald flinched.

"I know it's an important mission," Daisy continued, "but you should at least check in every once in a while!" Donald looked back to his companions for help, who offered him none. Donald then chuckled evilly, glancing at the gateway. "Donald!" Merlin shouted.

Donald bowed. "Be just a minute!" Daisy grabbed his tail. "Where do you think you're going?" Donald escaped her grip, dragging her to the ground. All of them laughed as Daisy chased Donald around the Cornerstone.

Minnie gasped. "Oh!" Sora's Keyblade had appeared, and the Cornerstone was shining with a familiar light. A bright flash occurred as Sora opened the gate to the next world.

"Sorry, but we have to borrow Donald for a little while longer," Sora apologized to Daisy, who wasn't convinced. "How much longer?" she demanded.

Donald reassured her. "Don't worry, Daisy. I'll be back!"

Minnie nodded. "Thank you for everything you've done." Merlin waved goodbye. "Think wisely! ...Oh yes! I have something for you two, Alex and Sora."

They walked up to Merlin, who gave them two spherical objects. As soon as Sora and Alexander took them, they disappeared. Alex's clothes flashed red, and Sora's clothes flashed blue. "Drive forms!" Alex realized. Merlin nodded. Alex had Valor Form, and Sora had Wisdom Form.

"Alexander," Merlin added, "I've been wondering... what exactly happened when you touched the Cornerstone of Light?"

Alex shrugged. "Just as you said, Merlin. The darkness in my heart was isolated and started acting up." He tapped the side of his head. "Joumae is the name of the dark side of my heart, otherwise known as the Lockshield."

Sora was surprised. "So you have another personality in your heart now?" Alex laughed sheepishly and sighed. "Yeah, and I can talk with him up here," he said, tapping his head again. **_Hey, what's with the tone of resignation?_** Joumae demanded. Alex sighed again. Donald looked confused. "Great, so there's two of you now?"

Goofy laughed. "We have another party member!" Alexander glared at him.

* * *

**Disclaimer: I only own Alexander, Joumae, and the Lockshield. Every other element of this story belongs to their respective owners. Namely Square-Enix and Disney.**


	15. Nights of the Cursed

Chapter 15**  
**Nights of the Cursed

Alex looked ahead at the path in front of the gummi ship. **_Whatcha lookin' for, Alex?_** Joumae teased in his head. "Shut up," Alex replied aloud, already irritated. Sora, Donald, and Goofy gave him a funny look. Alex shook his head. "Joumae," he explained.

Donald groaned. "That's the fifth time you've made a random outburst when you were talking to him!" Alex sighed. "Fourth time, actually. I'm sorry, okay?"

_For your information, Joumae..._ Alex thought, _I was thinking about what world to go to next. There's a path branching off from this main one._

**_I can see that,_** Joumae muttered.**_ So why do you need to think about it?_** Alex groaned. _Because I _really_ don't want to go to Atlantica, but we need to take care of it anyway!_

"I bet he's arguing with Joumae about where to go next," Sora reasoned, forcefully optimistic. Goofy looked at the paths. "Well, there's a world we know over there!" he mentioned, pointing to the path on their right. "It's Atlantica!" Donald shouted. "I wonder how Ariel's doing?" Sora wondered.

Alex coughed. "Go ahead. But I'm not going in with you." Everyone there gave him a strange look. "Why not?" Sora asked. Alex coughed again. "You'll find out soon enough."

Remaining in an awkward silence, they steered the ship toward Atlantica. When they got there, the trio vanished as they disembarked, leaving Alex alone... with Joumae. Alex sat down, because it was going to be a long wait.

* * *

**_So... why didn't you go in that world?_** Joumae wondered. Free to speak, Alex said aloud, "Shouldn't you know? You're me, after all!"

**_Actually, no,_** Joumae pointed out.**_ Y'see, I was created in _this _world, not the real world. I don't share your mind, and therefore I don't share your memories of the game. And I'm pretty sure I don't want to go digging through a teenager's mind for answers._**

Alex groaned. His dark counterpart had him there. "Well, answer a question for me first. Why are you called Joumae?"

**_Well, I _am_ the Lockshield's will, right?_** Alexander nodded. **_Well... "Joumae" is the Japanese word for "lock",_** Joumae admitted with a slightly embarrassed cough.

"**What**?" Alex shouted in outrage, jumping to his feet. "That's the cheesiest excuse ever! Your name was created on the basis that any word sounds cooler in Japanese?"

**_Doesn't it? Now tell me your excuse before you explode, why don't you?_** Alex shuddered. Joumae wasn't anything if not sarcastic and annoying. _Because..._ he thought to himself, _in Atlantica, they..._

"We're back!" Sora shouted as him and his friends appeared out of nowhere. They started to wobble. "Having trouble walking after being a fish for so long..." Goofy explained.

Alex laughed slightly. Donald was the first to recover. "Guess what! We're going to be in a musical!" Alex groaned. "Yes, I know."

They were surprised. Before they could ask, Alex said, "I really don't like singing. I remembered these events from the game, so that's why I didn't go. Anyway, why did you guys come back?"

Sora looked solemn for a moment. "There's this statue Flounder wants to get for Ariel, but it's stuck under a rock."

Alex nodded. "The spell Magnet ought to work. We'll come back once we find a Magnet element." Alex got in the driver's seat and turned the ship around. "At long last..." he mumbled, excited by the world he knew so well. Hey, it was a favorite among Kingdom Hearts fans, and Alexander was no exception.

As they approached the new world, Alex thought to himself, _Hey Joumae. Let's keep talk to a minimum, okay? I don't need any distractions._ Joumae silently and grudgingly agreed.

* * *

The quartet disembarked and ended up at the rampart. Sora ran up to the ledge and looked down at the dark town before them, enveloped by the night. "Wow," was all Donald could say. The town below was far more dreary than the Disney worlds they were used to. And more detailed.

"This world's..." Sora started. "...kinda different," Goofy finished. Alex was still excited. "This is Port Royal," he announced.

They heard a scream, followed by some gunshots and more commotion. They ran to a different ledge. Sora looked down at the town. "Something's up."

"Organization XIII?" Goofy wondered.

"Or the Heartless?" Donald reasoned. Alex shrugged. "Only one way to find out." They ran down the stairs to the port below.

* * *

"Aztec treasure, eh?" Pete repeated. The pirate captain nodded, and his group of pirates agreed. "Aye, and thanks to the curse put on it... we are neither among the livin', nor the dead."

Pete gave the pirates a funny look. "Really? 'Cause you look like regular pirates to me." The captain smirked and said, "Ah, but in the moonlight..." As if on cue, the cloud passing overhead ceased to cover the full moon above them. All of the pirates turned into skeletons.

"Woah!" Pete exclaimed. "Now I see what you were sayin'." He paused a moment, then said, "Well, if you see two doofuses, a brat holdin' a Keyblade, and another brat with a Lockshield, steer clear. They got a kinda magic that don't belong in this world, see? And nobody knows what it'd do to ya. 'Specially when the moon's showing whatcha really are."

Another cloud passed overhead, and the pirates reverted to their original forms. "A match for Barbossa, you say?" the pirate captain queried.

The quartet ran into the harbor. Pete and the pirates turned to them. "See? I knew it," Pete muttered. "Those are the punks I was tellin' ya about."

Sora and the others drew their weapons. "So what if we're punks?" Alexander demanded. "That's Alex, Sora, Donald, and Goofy to you! Don't you forget it!"

Barbossa smiled. "That we won't. And we'll engrave it on your tombstone, to be sure." Pete was visibly surprised by that one-liner. "Woah! I like your style."

Barbossa began giving out orders. "Men – half of you stay here and indulge these cullies. The rest – bring me that medallion!" The pirates shouted, "Aye!" and split up. A few pirates stayed and faced the four of them.

Sora feigned disappointment. "Aw, we only get to stomp on a few of you?" Alex became worried, looking up to the sky. "Um, Sora..."

Barbossa laughed slightly. The pirates charged at them. Sora charged back and sliced through one of them. No really, the attack went right through them! Everyone else attacked, but they also did no damage and left no mark. However, the pirates did their damage just fine.

"It's no use! We can't beat them!" Sora realized. One of the pirates replied, "Aye, whaddya expect?"

Alex frantically searched the sky. To his excitement, the cloud covering the moon passed on, and the full moon shone down on them. Sora and the others gasped. The pirates had turned undead again. "You best be sayin' your prayers!" the pirate grumbled.

Pete noticed the change. "Hey, watch out! They can see ya! Stay away from their magic!" The pirate looked confused, as much as a skeleton can show confusion. "What for?" Pete groaned. "Weren't ya listenin' to me before?"

Sora grinned. "Hey, Pete, thanks for the tip!" Pete did a take, suddenly aware of his blunder.

Alex grinned also, and charged at the pirates. This time, when he attacked, the pirates actually felt it. Donald shouted, "_Thunder_!" A bolt of lightning his some of the pirates, who were immediately stunned. Further experimentation showed that Blizzard froze them in place, and Fire sent them running. The battle was ended relatively quickly.

Pete growled, seeing that he had no allies around. "This ain't over yet!" He ran off to the dock. The Lockshield disappeared in inky black smoke, and Alex folded his arms. "Well, now what?"

Goofy thought about it. "Weren't those pirates headed into town?" Sora nodded. "Let's see what they're after." They ran into the town.

* * *

A bunch of Shadows cornered a man in the streets. "What are they?" The quartet saw this, and Donald shouted, "It's the Heartless! Watch out!" They stood between the man and the Heartless. "You find some cover, and we'll deal with this!" Sora ordered. The man nodded and ran out of the fray.

There were only Shadows and a few Soldiers, so it didn't last long. The Heartless were defeated easily. The stranger came out of his hiding spot. "Thank you. What are your names?"

The quartet introduced themselves yet again. The man nodded and replied, "My name's William Turner. Could you help me with something?" Sora put his hands on the back of his head. "Of course!" Will turned back to the harbor. "Let's go."

* * *

The five of them ran to the edge of the dock, and they watched the pirate ship sail away. Will gasped. "We're too late. Those pirates captured Miss Swann and took her to their ship. Now they've sailed, and I'll never be able to find her!"

"Then she's long gone," a man's voice called out from the ship next to them. They turned to the voice. "The Black Pearl is nigh uncatchable. Best find yourself another girl, mate." The man on the ship jumped down to the deck.

They started walking toward the plank connecting the ship to the dock. "You..." Will muttered. "What are you doing aboard the Interceptor? She's off limits to civilians."

"Ah, fortunate that I'm going to commandeer her, then," the man replied. "She'll make a fine pirate ship." Sora was immediately excited. "A pirate?"

The man got up from the deck. "Captain Jack Sparrow, if you please," the pirate introduced himself. Will thought for a moment. "Take me with you. Help me hunt down the Black Pearl and rescue Miss Swann. I got you out of that jail cell, Sparrow. Do this and you're debt's repaid."

"You'll have to win fair lady's heart alone, mate. I see no profit in it for me," Jack Sparrow decided. Sora groaned. "C'mon, Captain!"

Alex smirked. "You can't sail the Interceptor all by yourself, anyway. Besides, we're able to fight Barbossa and those undead pirates. If you're affiliated with us, you'll be able to fight them too." Jack thought about it, and jumped up to the plank. "You've a point there."

The five of them began walking up to the Interceptor. "Thanks, Sparrow," Will said in passing. "**Captain** Sparrow," Jack corrected him. Alex walked up to him. "I'm Alexander. That's Sora, Donald, and Goofy." Jack glanced at the four of them, and looked back at Will, who said, "I'm Will Turner."

The captain muttered, "That would be short for William, I imagine. No doubt named for your father, eh?"

William was surprised. "Yes," he confirmed hesitantly.

The captain didn't seem to react. "Well then, Mr. Turner. You get us ready to make way. I have some effects to liberate." He began walking back into the town.

"Aye-aye!" Will replied. "But hurry." Jack waved away the worry. "Naturally."

The quartet walked down the plank. "Sora..." Donald mumbled. Goofy looked concerned. "You really want to be a pirate?"

Sora chuckled. "Of course not!" Donald stopped as the others went ahead. Apparently, the idea didn't strike the duck nearly as bad as it did the others.

Jack looked at Sora. "What do you make of this Will?" Sora shrugged. "I don't know. We just met him." Jack looked back up and grinned. "Hmm... I think my luck's about to change." Alexander glared at the pirate. It was obvious that he didn't really trust him.

* * *

They started sailing out of the harbor. As soon as their jobs were done, Sora approached Alexander. "What's the story on these pirates? Do you remember from the game?" Sora asked. Alex sighed and nodded. "Yes I do. Y'see, the medallion they were looking for was Aztec gold. There are eight-hundred and eighty-two pieces in all, completely identical. Apparently, Miss Swann had the last one they're looking for. The other 881 pieces are in a stone chest on the Isle de Muerta."

Ten years ago, the pirates, save for Jack Sparrow whose crew had committed mutiny a while before and marooned him on a small island, found the treasure chest and took all the medallions. They spent them all, but they soon realized that the gold was cursed. The curse meant that all the pirates weren't living, so they couldn't die. But they weren't dead either.

Fed up with that numb immortality, they went around trying to restore the medallions to the stone chest. And the blood of those who touched the gold also had to be restored to the chest. That's why they took Miss Swann. But she isn't the one they were looking for.

Alex pointed at the captain, who was at the helm. "See how Jack's fixated on that compass?" Sora looked, and saw that the captain was holding a compass, at which he was staring intently. "Yeah," he replied.

"Well, that compass doesn't quite point north," Alex explained. "It actually points at the Black Pearl's current position. In order to find the Island of Dead which can't be found except by those who know where it is, we need to follow the pirates. Besides, the one thing Jack expects to get out of this is his own ship back: the Black Pearl."

* * *

Alex lowered the plank onto the rocky shore of the Isle de Muerta. Then the six of them stood in a circle. "Will and I will go and save Miss Swann." Sora folded his arms. "What about us?"

Jack didn't smile. "You four will guard the ship. It's a duty given to only the bravest of pirates."

Alex sighed deeply. "Really? Well, I think you're just trying to fast-talk us." Jack feigned surprise. "And what makes you think that?"

Alex held up his hand. "One," he began counting off on his fingers, "there's nothing brave about staying behind and avoiding the action. Two, there's only one path leading to the ship from the treasure horde. Three, you and Will aren't used to fighting against Heartless, which Pete will be certain to dish out."

Jack was beaten by this. "Very well. Alexander, you come with us. You three stay back and guard the ship." Sora, Donald, and Goofy were still baffled by this, but they stayed behind anyway. Alexander, William, and Jack Sparrow ran into the cave.

* * *

"Hey, Jack. Why me and not the others?" Alex asked under a hushed tone. Jack harshly motioned for them to be quiet, and said, "You are a smarter lad than the rest of them. I trust you won't do anything stupid. And we need a little insurance against those Heartless, like you said."

Alex almost sighed, but refrained from doing so. They were near the pirates now. The three of them hid in an adjacent section of the cave, with a narrow hole in it to spy on the treasure horde.

The pirates were cheering, and Barbossa and Elizabeth Swann were standing on the rock where the cursed gold was placed. Barbossa began to speak, "Every last piece that went astray we have returned, save for this!" He held up the gold medallion, which was held by a small gold chain, probably used as a necklace. Barbossa turned to Elizabeth. "And now, the blood will be repaid to free us from this curse forever!"

Will started to make his way down to the pirates. Jack whispered quickly, "No! Not yet. Wait for the opportune moment." Will turned back to the captain. "When it's of greatest profit to you?!" he demanded. Jack sighed and said, "May I ask you something?

He approached Will, nearly getting in his face. "Have I ever given you reason not to trust me? Stay here... and try not to do anything stupid." Alex sighed and kept a lookout.

Suddenly, he heard a "clunk", and Jack went down unconscious. Will was holding a wooden paddle where Jack's head had been a couple seconds before. He threw the paddle down and walked away. Alex didn't bother to interfere, and kept looking through to the pirates.

Barbossa took a knife and put a deep cut in Elizabeth's hand. He held her hand, which was clutching the medallion, out over the stone chest. "Begun by blood... by blood undone." After a moment, Elizabeth let go, and the blood-stained medallion dropped into the chest. Barbossa stood still, waiting for the feeling to return to his body.

But nothing happened. The pirates were still undead. Barbossa quickly grabbed Elizabeth's hand and shouted, "You! Maid! Your father. Was your father William Turner?"

Elizabeth shook her head. "No," she muttered, fully aware that she had tricked the pirates. Barbossa threw her down, and she landed behind the stone they had been standing on.

"I don't understand!" one of the pirates yelled. "What's going on?" another cried out. "Who brought this wench to us?" Barbossa shouted, looking among his men. "She said her name was Turner!" yet another pirate explained nervously.

By some miracle, the medallion dropped down next to Elizabeth. She reached out to grab it, and her hand met Will's. "Hurry," Will whispered. They began to run. Barbossa saw them. "You there!" He also saw the medallion dangling from Will's hand. "The medallion! After them, you ingrates!" Feeling he was being watched, Barbossa looked around. Alex's eyes accidentally made contact with Barbossa's. Alexander immediately made a run for it.

* * *

Sora, Donald, and Goofy met up with Elizabeth, William, and Alexander. "Quick, they're after us!" Will informed them. Alex brought out his weapon and joined his friends, facing the incoming pirates. "We'll hold them off!" Sora muttered. "Give us a sign when the ship's ready to sail!"

Will nodded. "Right! We'll light the signal fire!" Elizabeth and Will ran toward the Interceptor. The quartet met the pirates head-on. By now, they had learned one thing about the pirates: they were only vulnerable in the moonlight. Before they could even do damage, they had to bring the pirates out of the shady spots. Once they were in the moonlight, they were easy to stun with magic.

About a minute passed as they held back the pirates. Sora backed up and looked back at the Interceptor. There was a trail of smoke coming up from the ship. "The signal!" Hearing that, Donald, Goofy, and Alexander followed Sora to the Interceptor.

"Where's Jack?" Sora demanded once they had met up with Will. Will and Alex began to explain the turn of events in the cave, and how Will had knocked Jack out because... "Jack's no fairytale pirate," Will muttered. "The real ones aren't to be trusted." After that, they immediately set sail. They had to get Miss Swann back to Port Royal.

* * *

Alex stood at the top of the stairs leading down to the Interceptor's hold. There was Will and Elizabeth. He decided to eavesdrop. "Is it true? You gave Barbossa my name instead of yours." It was Will talking. "Why choose my name?"

Elizabeth shook her head. "I don't know." They both gazed at the medallion in her hand. "Elizabeth..." Will asked, "where did you get that?"

The governor's daughter looked incredibly solemn. "It's yours. From the day we found you – drifting at sea."

Will seemed somewhat relieved. "After all this time... I thought I'd lost it. It was a gift from my father... he sent it to me."

Elizabeth slowly gave the medallion to William. "I'm sorry." Will took the trinket. "Why did you take it?" he demanded. Elizabeth still looked sad. "Because I was afraid that you were a pirate," she replied. "That would have been awful."

Will stood up, having realized something important. "Of course... Don't you see?" He walked over to the other side of the hold, apparently in deep thought. "It wasn't your blood they needed... it was my father's blood – my blood. The blood..." he sighed and turned back to her, "of a pirate."

Alex walked back to the deck. He looked at the sea around the Interceptor. There was a faint image of a ship in the distance, slowly gaining on them. "The Black Pearl..." he muttered. "I can only imagine the scene going on over there..."

* * *

_Aboard the Black Pearl..._

"How the blazes did you get off that island, Jack?" Barbossa wondered, slowly walking around Captain Sparrow, who was bound to the mast by ropes. Jack replied, "When you sailed away in my ship and marooned me on that godforsaken spit of land, with naught but a pistol and a single shot, you forgot one very important thing, mate." He paused for emphasis, then quickly said, "I'm Captain Jack Sparrow."

Barbossa stopped and turned to him. "I won't be makin' that mistake again," he remarked with a smirk.

"Then what say you to puttin' the past behind us, untying these ropes, and letting me negotiate the return of your medallion, eh?" Jack proposed. "What say you to that?"

"Seein' as how the Black Pearl's mine now, Jack," Barbossa countered, "lettin' you go doesn't seem to fall within my interest."

Captain Jack Sparrow was angry now, and had given up the calm act. "Odd, I'm not actually concerned with **your interest**. Give me back the Pearl!"

The undead pirate captain chuckled. "Alright! Lock him in the brig!" He started walking back to the Black Pearl's helm. A random pirate called out, "We're comin' up on the Interceptor. What do we do, Captain?"

Barbossa was quite annoyed. "Whaddya think, you idiot?"

* * *

"Will, look!" Elizabeth shouted. William ran from the helm and looked where Elizabeth was pointing. Sora, Donald, and Goofy joined him. "It's the Black Pearl," Alex muttered.

"What now?" Donald asked. Sora mumbled, "I wonder what Jack would do?"

Will began to think. "I'm not sure. I suppose... he'd run for it."

Sora nodded. "Sounds good to me!" In the middle of that sentence, the ship began to shake, and everyone was thrown off their feet. Will tumbled over the edge and into the water. Elizabeth got up and ran to where Will had fallen. "Will!" she cried out, looking for him at the water's surface. He was nowhere to be found.

They heard a cannon being fired. "Everyone hit the deck!" Goofy yelled. There was another shake, throwing them off their feet again. Alex looked around and saw the medallion there on the deck. He grabbed it and wrapped the chain around his wrist. "We're just gonna have to fight!"

The Interceptor and the Black Pearl ended up side by side. Elizabeth hid in the hold, and the quartet faced the boarding pirates. A cannon shot from the Pearl and exploded on the deck. Alex ran up to a cannon and fired it at the Pearl. The cannon shots stopped for a while. Then Sora, Donald, Goofy, as well as Alexander began to fend off the pirates, and keeping the medallion safe. They were used to fighting them now, so they were defeated easily despite their numbers.

* * *

"Izzat... all of them?" Alex muttered between gasps. The pirates were nowhere in sight, and the Black Pearl was starting to smoke from the cannon blasts. "Hooray!" Donald shouted, assuming victory. "We beat the pirates!" Sora added.

"Well, did you now, laddie?" Barbossa's voice came from behind them. Him, his crew of pirates, Elizabeth and Jack were there, though the last two were tied up. "Jack!" Sora shouted. Alex groaned. "Shoulda known..."

Jack made a forced laugh. Sora looked around and saw that they were surrounded by undead pirates. There was no way out. Alexander glared at Barbossa, who stared back. "Now then," the undead captain stated, "I'll be having back that medallion." Alexander's grip on the medallion tightened.

Barbossa stepped forward, and the quartet got into a fighting stance. "Unless it's more important than their lives?" Barbossa added, indicating Jack and Elizabeth.

"Barbossa!" Everyone turned to the side of the ship, where Will Turner had appeared and was pointing a pistol at Barbossa. "She goes free!"

"Go ahead boy – shoot! We can't die," Barbossa said with a laugh.

"You can't..." Will muttered. He lowered the pistol. "But I can. My name is Will Turner! My father was Bootstrap Bill Turner! His blood runs in my veins!"

"Aye?" Barbossa blurted out in surprise. For the first time since Alex saw him, he seemed afraid.

"On my word, do as I say," Will continued, jumping down from the rigging, "or I'll pull this trigger and be lost to Davy Jones' Locker."

The captain seemed to become calm again. "Name your terms... Mr. Turner."

"Release Elizabeth... and Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Alexander!" Will stated.

"Anything else?" Barbossa asked. Jack squirmed a bit, trying to point himself out. "Leave – now!" Will yelled. Jack hung his head in resignation.

Barbossa bowed and said, "Agreed. Leave we shall..." Alexander could almost feel the next line coming. Barbossa rose and added, "...but the Heartless stay!"

Pete started to cackle. Sora and the others looked over to the fat antagonist as he knocked out Will, and a bunch of Air Pirate Heartless appeared around them. "No fair!" Sora shouted.

* * *

They all ended up in the hold of the Interceptor, tied together by ropes. "I gotta hand it to ya, Barbossa," Pete remarked, looking down at the six of them. "That plan worked out perfectly!"

"The powder is ready, Captain!" a pirate called out from overhead. "Very well," Barbossa muttered. "Let's leave." Pete and the undead pirates left.

"What do we do now?" Donald demanded worriedly. "We'll be blown to smithereens!" Goofy pointed out. Jack sighed. "A good pirate knows when to give up."

Sora glanced at Jack. "You've got to be kidding!" Jack glanced back. "Your average pirate, anyway." He finally cut his bonds with a knife and stood up. Alex managed to turn the Lockshield's blade against his ropes, and freed himself. "Let's get to work on those powder kegs," Alex muttered, helping Jack untie the others' ropes. "We still need this ship."

Alex, Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Jack ran up to the Interceptor's deck. Air Pirates were getting ready to light the powder charges and blow up the ship. Sora and Alexander ran to the kegs and whacked them over the edge of the ship with their weapons, sending them into the water. Donald, Goofy, and Jack had already taken care of the Heartless. "All clear!" Sora remarked.

Jack ran to the helm. "That's the second time I've had to watch that man sail away with my ship. But I'll be havin' her back soon enough." They set sail for the Isle de Muerta yet again.

* * *

"Now, let's be tryin' this again!" Barbossa shouted. They were in the treasure room again, readying their little ritual. "The last of the Aztec treasure has been returned." He pointed his knife at William Turner's throat, and made a slicing motion across his own. Will flinched. "And now, the blood will be repaid to free us from this curse forever! This time for sure!" The pirates cheered.

"Ahoy! Treasure, mateys!" Sora shouted as they ran into the cave. Alex winced at the bad impression. Barbossa was immensely surprised. "Not possible."

Donald smirked. "Not probable! We're alive and we're pirates!"

Jack stepped forward, brandishing his cutlass. "Captain Jack Sparrow!"

The others did the same, bringing out their weapons. "Sora!"

"Donald Duck!"

"Goofy, too!"

Alex stepped forward, pointing the edge of the Lockshield at Barbossa. "And Alexander!"

"So you want to play pirate?" Barbossa asked them. "Best save the playacting for the nursery. After them!" he shouted, waving his hand, giving the signal for his force to attack. The pirates closed in on them.

* * *

Sora slashed the last pirate with his Keyblade, making it break down into pieces. "No more playacting now!"

Will ran up to him. "Thank you, Sora." Donald and Goofy joined them. "Uh, where's Jack?" Goofy asked. They heard swords clashing at the back of the cave, and, sure enough, there was Jack and Barbossa going at it.

Alex finished up his enemies and ran over to them. "Want a little help, Captain?" he shouted at his comrade. Jack fended Barbossa off for a moment. "Huh?" he replied in a daze. Then he grunted as Barbossa stabbed him quickly while his guard was down.

Sora gasped. "Jack!" Jack started stumbling back. Barbossa looked proud. "You're a fool, Jack Sparrow." Jack stumbled into the moonlight behind him. He instantly turned into a skeletal pirate. This made everyone do a take at the sight. Jack looked at his hands, and shuffled a medallion between his bony fingers.

Alex chuckled. "He couldn't resist, could he? He swiped a medallion during the fighting to try out that curse."

Will was impressed. "Jack..."

Barbossa turned from his enemy and shouted, "Show yourself, Pete! The tide has changed!" Alex looked behind himself, and there was Pete. As Alex wondered where in the world he had appeared from, Pete put his fists on his hips and said, "See? I told ya you'd be needin' ol' Pete!" Then Pete whistled.

Alex watched as a chameleon-type creature with glowing eyes and a lamp for a tail jumped around and inched its way down the walls until it hung next to Barbossa. "An Illuminator Heartless!" he blurted out. The Illuminator immediately stuck up its tail. All the light in the room seemed to vanish and be absorbed by the lamp. Alex shouted, "Find it! It's taking all of the moonlight!"

The five of them started running around in the dark. They could only see a few feet in front of them. After running around, Alex found the Illuminator hanging on the wall. He bashed it a few times. The Heartless had little health and no attack power, so it fell easily. The light suddenly came back to the cave, and Barbossa was revealed as a skeleton.

Jack and Barbossa faced each other. Barbossa slashed at him. "Now do you want help?" Alex shouted, running over to the Captain. Barbossa was about to attack again. Jack grabbed Alex's arm, swung him around, and Alex bashed Barbossa up into the air with the momentum. Then Alex stood on Jack's bony shoulders and launched himself up to the undead captain. Alexander slashed through Barbossa with all his might.

Alex landed back down on the ground. The quartet and Will faced Pete. Pete backed away. "This ain't over!" he yelled at them before running off.

Jack faced Barbossa once again. "Right! Care to surrender, Barbossa?" The undead pirate got back to his feet and brandished his cutlass. Jack sighed. "Well, enough of this, then..." He threw his cutlass to the ground and brought out his pistol. "What say you we call it... a draw?"

Barbossa pointed his sword at Jack once more. "Jack, how many times do I have to tell ya–"

Jack quickly threw his medallion away and fired at Barbossa's chest. Barbossa began to laugh. He couldn't die because of that, could he?

"Laugh while you can, Barbossa!" Will shouted. He held a knife in one hand, and both medallions in the other. He dropped the medallions into the stone chest. The curse had been undone; the blood had been repaid, and the medallions had been restored. Barbossa flinched as he felt the pain in his chest. He realized that he was finally alive... but was about to die. "I feel... cold." He fell to the ground dead.

* * *

They all walked out of the cave, now that the work was done. Alex sighed. "Being a pirate is hard work," he muttered. "I'm just not cut out for it."

**_Oh, I don't know, _**Joumae spoke up, annoyed after having been silent for a while, **_I'd say you handled yourself pretty well as a pirate. Maybe you should consider going full time._**

_Oh, shut up._ Alex groaned.

Will stopped. "What now, Jack?" he asked.

"Whatever I want, now that the Pearl is mine again," Jack replied, looking at the Black Pearl as if no other treasure in that island could ever come close.

"That she is," Will said with a chuckle. "Thank you, Jack." He held out his hand. Jack flinched wildly. "I didn't want ye hittin' me again, mate," he explained hastily.

"Hey Jack," Sora remarked, "good luck."

"And remember to be good!" Donald added. Alex restrained a laugh.

"I'm off," Jack announced. Turning to the ships, he saw Elizabeth rushing toward them. "Will!" she cried out. Jack opened up his arms to receive an embrace, but Elizabeth passed him up and hugged Will. Jack hung his head, and started walking to the ships.

Sora put his hands on the back of his head. "Good for them."

Goofy nodded vigorously. "Uh-huh!" He turned to Sora. "Hey Sora – how come your face is all red?" he asked in a teasing tone. Sora looked flustered. "What? It is not red!" he quickly denied.

Donald put his hands on his hips. "Aw, I know who you're thinking about." They began to laugh while Sora covered his face.

Suddenly, Jack's compass flashed with a familiar light. It began to float up into the air as a halo of light surrounded it. Jack was really surprised by this. Sora pulled out his Keyblade, and a bright flash occurred around them as he opened the gate to the next world.

Sora looked over to Donald. "You know... for a minute there... I was afraid that we were going to lose Donald to the curse of the treasure!" It was Donald's turn to look surprised.

Goofy raised his hand. "Yup. Me too!"

Alex grinned. "Ha, that makes three of us." **_Four of us,_** Joumae corrected him.

Donald was outraged. "**What**!?" he screamed, startling all of his comrades.

* * *

**Disclaimer: I only own Alexander, Joumae, and the Lockshield. Every other element of this story belongs to their respective owners. Namely Square-Enix and Disney.**


	16. This Is Halloween

Chapter 16  
This Is Halloween

Alex sighed deeply. "I knew I forgot something." Everyone looked at him. "I forgot about finding a Keyhole again back in Port Royal," Alex explained.

Sora shrugged. "We'll come back for it later." He looked at the paths ahead of the gummi ship. "Now... where to go next?"

Alex looked at the new paths. There was another fork in the road. He knew what worlds waited at the end of the paths. "Well?" Donald asked expectantly.

Alexander smirked. "Well, both paths lead to worlds we know. Let's go right." Sora started steering the ship onto the path to the right. "Gawrsh, what world are we going to, Alex?" Goofy wondered.

Alex's smirk turned into a wide grin. "We're going to Halloween Town."

* * *

The four of them stood in the graveyard. Right in front of them was a scarecrow with a pumpkin head, pointing the direction Halloween Town was in. Sora, Donald, and Goofy stared at it thoughtfully in their costumes.

Sora was in a gothic version of his traveling clothes, with bat wings on his back, fake vampire teeth, and a flat pumpkin head on the side of his head. Donald was completely covered up in mummy bandages, except for his mouth and the part where he was cut in half. There was a gap between his chest and his hips, but Donald was able to move like it was nothing. Goofy had a bolt in his head, wore a ragged old outfit, and his eyes looked crazed.

Sora turned back to a tombstone. "Come on out, Alex. It's not that bad." Slowly, Alex stepped out from behind the tombstone. He wasn't in his usual attire because this was Halloween Town. From the neck down, he was wrapped in mummy bandages. Even his hands and feet. Besides that, he wore green flared gloves, a black leather vest, black baggy slacks, and white sneakers. He also had bat wings on his back, and a flat skull covering the right side of his head. It was pretty severe.

"I'm just not used to such a sudden change in attire yet," Alexander moaned, looking over his Halloween costume. He glanced at the scarecrow. "I guess it really is Halloween Town."

Donald spoke up. "Well, it certainly does look like Hallowee... Wha?" He turned to the path leading to the town. There were red lights shining from the sides of the path. Alex was mildly amused. "Christmas decorations?"

Everyone looked at him. Alexander shrugged. "That's what it struck me as." At that moment, a certain ghost dog came flying by the quartet, barking madly. Sora was the first to recover from the scare. "Hey, it's Zero! How've you been, boy?" The ghost dog flew down the path to the town square, and the four of them followed it.

As they came into the town square, they lost sight of Zero. Not that it mattered, because a new sight came before them. There were more Christmas decorations everywhere. "What's that for?" Sora asked. Alex was about to respond, but then they all heard a noise above them. Something like bells ringing.

Donald looked up. "It's Jack!" Everyone else looked where Donald pointed, and indeed it was Jack. **_Oh, great. Another Jack,_** Joumae muttered. Jack was riding some kind of flying coffin pulled by skeletal reindeer with a big container behind it. The coffin-sleigh flew down to the ramp in front of them and landed. The skeleton stood up and waved to the familiar trio.

"Sora, Donald, and Goofy!" he called. "Welcome back, and Merry Christmas!" He looked at Alex. "Who's this?"

Alex waved back. "I'm Alexander. I've been traveling with these three for a while."

Sora was confused. "Merry Christmas? Don't you mean 'Happy Halloween'?"

Jack nodded. "Of course. Halloween greetings from Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King." He ended that sentence with great flourish, getting right into Alex's face and scaring him nearly out of his wits. Alex laughed after a moment as the tension left his body. **_You're going to have to scare harder than that if you're going to be any use in this world,_** Joumae remarked in his head.

Jack stood back up. "Forgive me. I'm in a Christmas mood. You see, I'm running the show again this year..."

Alex raised an eyebrow, having fully recovered from the scare. _Again? This year?_

"...but I need Sandy Claws' blessing, so I'm off to Christmas Town," Jack finished.

The quartet stood in a circle, talking amongst themselves. "Sandy Claws?" Sora wondered. Goofy chuckled. "He probably means Santa Claus."

Jack jumped onto the fountain in the center of the square. "Aren't these decorations wonderful? This year Halloween Town's going to handle Christmas too!"

"But first!" he added, drawing their attention back to him. "We have to visit Sally. She's working on something no self-respecting Santa Claus can do without."

**_Hey, he got the name right that time!_** Joumae shouted into Alex's mind, making him wince. Jack motioned for the others to follow. "Come along – I'll show you," he proposed, and started walking toward a tall narrow building on the other end of the square.

Sora thought about the idea. "A Halloween Town Christmas..." Alex, Donald, and Goofy took a glance around the square. The guillotine, the scary toys, and the skeletal reindeer made the three of them shudder uncontrollably. It would be a very scary Christmas.

"Wanna go check it out?" Sora asked, once again oblivious to the others. The other three sighed and hung their heads in resignation. "C'mon, hurry!" Jack shouted at them. The quartet followed Jack after a moment.

* * *

Dr. Finkelstein was working on an experiment in his lab. Three little kids with Halloween masks on were working with a piece of metal. The doctor looked over a huge book. He opened up his metal head and rubbed his brain, obviously as a habit.

"Hello, Doctor!" Jack greeted him. "Where's Sally?"

Dr. Finkelstein glanced at him. "Can't you see that I'm in the middle of an experiment?" he demanded angrily, quite irate at the interruption. The doctor turned his wheelchair around and went over to the table.

The quartet watched as the three kids Lock, Shock, and Barrel lifted the piece of metal and carried it. Sally came in through the door and watched silently as well. She didn't look too hopeful.

"Hey, this is way too heavy!" Lock complained. "Then let's toss it!" Shock suggested. They all nodded.

The doctor shot a deadly look at them. "You do and you'll be sorry! Now bring it over here." The three troublemakers ignored the doctor and yelled, "Heave-ho!" launching the load over to the table.

The metal landed with a crash, sparked for a few seconds, and then exploded. Sally sighed. Lock, Shock, and Barrel took off their masks and cackled evilly, then ran for the door.

Dr. Finkelstein slammed his hands onto the table. "Imbeciles! Now my experiment is ruined!" Sally watched as the kids ran past her, then faced Jack.

Jack looked excited. "Sally! Did you finish it? I want to show my good friends."

The girl looked solemn. "I'm sorry, Jack. I... I need a little bit more time." Jack paused for a moment. "Ohh... Well, that's all right. Just as long as it's ready for Christmas!"

Sally didn't change her expression as Jack passed her. "But... Jack..."

Jack turned back to all of them as he approached the door. "I'd best be off. I've got to go get Sandy Claws, right away! Wonderful to see you again," he added, indicating Sora, Donald, and Goofy. "Good-bye for now!"

Alex folded his arms. _Something tells me this isn't the first time that Jack tried to take over Christmas,_ he grumbled to Joumae, who responded with: **_No, really? I had no idea._**

Sora began to think again. "Go get Santa Claus..."

Sally turned to Sora after Jack was out of earshot. "Please, Sora. I'm afraid something terrible will happen if Jack goes through with this."

Donald nodded vigorously. "You can say that again!" Sora was silent. "Sora?" Goofy asked.

Alex slapped his forehead. Sora was looking up with a giddy expression on his face. Apparently, the idea of seeing Santa Claus had caused his childish nature to appear.

"Are those strange-looking fellows in the town square with you?" Jack asked them as he walked back in. Alex shook his head, having anticipated the question. "If it's Heartless, then of course not."

Jack nodded. "That's right, Heartless! The ones who wanted to spoil Halloween **and** Christmas."

Sora agreed. "They're definitely not with us. But Alex, Donald, Goofy and I can take care of them for you." His childlike excitement came back suddenly. "And then we can go see Santa!"

Donald put his hands on his hips and started tapping his foot, glaring at Sora. Alex also gave him a meaningful glance. Sora looked back at them, saw the looks, and hastily added, "But first, the Heartless!" Alex sighed as they followed Jack out of Dr. Finkelstein's lab.

* * *

"Now hear this you... you things!" The mayor of Halloween Town shouted through a megaphone at the Wight Knight Heartless in the town square. "Leave Halloween Town at once... by order of the mayor!"

Naturally, the Heartless neither budged nor responded. "Jack?" The mayor cried out. "Where are you? I'm only an elected official – I can't handle this by myself!"

The five of them ran out of the lab and faced the Heartless. Hearing the mayor's last sentence, Alex laughed out loud. Jack ran up to the mayor. "Jack!" The mayor shouted as he ran away. The quartet brought out their weapons, and all of them got into a fighting stance. "We're on it!" Sora muttered.

Alexander made a note of a few things while the fight dragged on. First of all, Jack had an elaborate fighting style. He used magic, and magic only. Jack used Fire, Blizzard, and Thunder in very flashy ways, catching the Heartless off guard.

Second was the town square itself. It had a few... strange elements that made it dangerous to fight in. The fountain shot volatile blobs of green slime if you hit it accidentally, the guillotine dropped down on you if you strayed under it, the sewer grates at one end of the square shot out bursts of more green slime if you wandered onto it, and the gate at the side of the square suddenly slammed open and shut if you walked in front of them. Alex made sure to avoid these as he fought.

Soon, the battle was over. Jack thought out loud. "How is Sandy Claws supposed to relax with all these Heartless running around?" He turned to the quartet. "He's going to need bodyguards!"

Alexander sighed. "I suppose we're up for the job, then?" Jack nodded and grinned. Sora also looked excited, as expected.

* * *

Lock, Shock, and Barrel rode out of town in their walking tub. As strange as that may sound, this is Halloween Town, remember?

"What should we bring along next time?" Lock wondered.

"A bucketful of caterpillars!" Shock suggested.

Barrel shook his head, then yelled, "Or something even worse!"

The tub came to a halt as it ended up in front of a familiar witch. Lock turned around and faced her. The others did the same. "Who's that?" Lock asked. "Some old hag!" Barrel teased.

"Silence!" Maleficent commanded them. Shock looked intrigued. "A witch?"

Maleficent spread her arms out, and dark green flames surrounded her for a moment. The three troublemakers huddled together, shaking in fear.

"Hmm..." the witch mused, "perhaps you three could be of use to me. Come along, all of you. I'll show you the true meaning of 'mischief.'"

* * *

"All right, bodyguards!" Jack ordered them. "Christmas Town is this way!" He turned toward the graveyard. "The doorway is in the woods just past the graveyard!"

They quickly made their way toward the Hinterlands. Alex made another note about the environment: the tombstones were very fragile. A few swings and they went down... on top of someone more often than not. But that was a perk in its own right. **_It's fun just dropping those tombstones on the Heartless, isn't it?_** Joumae commented with a chuckle after Alex had shoved the tombstone onto a bunch of Wight Knights.

Soon enough, they were in the woods Jack had spoke of. "Here it is!" Jack announced, pointing at a narrow tree with a door in the shape of a Christmas tree on it. "The door to Christmas Town!" Alex looked at the surrounding hills, in which there were more trees with holiday-themed doors embossed.

Jack Skellington began to pace in front of the tree. "The spooks of Halloween can get so tiresome year after year. I wanted something new." He turned back to the door. "And I found this!"

Sora stared at the door, becoming more excited by the second. "Beyond this door is a world filled with wonders the likes of which you've never seen!" Jack continued, "At first I couldn't believe my eyes! Everything was so fresh and exciting!"

"C'mon!" Sora suddenly blurted out, shaking his fists with glee. "Just open it!" Alex stifled another groan. Jack, with great flourish, opened the door. Sora immediately ran up to it and jumped in. Donald, Goofy, and Alex ran up to the door after him and stared down into it. "Huh?" Donald muttered.

The three of them exchanged concerned looks, then jumped in. They fell into an icy blue vortex, decorated with snowflakes.

* * *

The portal tree on Yuletide Hill opened up and spat out Sora. The Keyblade Master tried to look up at the sight, but Donald fell on top of him. Sora tried to look up again, but Goofy piled up on top of Donald. Finally, Sora pushed the two of them off and looked down on Christmas Town. "Cooool!" he exclaimed. Donald got up and also took in the view. "Wow!"

Alexander and Jack walked out of the portal. Alex was underwhelmed, to say the least. Donald looked around. "So where's Santa?"

Jack pointed down toward the town. "In his workshop." He began walking down the long path. "Shall we?" Sora and Donald eagerly followed him. Goofy and Alex glanced at each other, and sighed.

* * *

The five comrades walked into Christmas Town's square. Alex looked around. "What is it, Alexander?" Jack asked him.

Alex shrugged. "I get the feeling that there'll be Heartless right about..." Two Wight Knights and a Toy Soldier Heartless appeared in front of them. "...now."

Everyone got into a fighting stance. "En garde, loyal bodyguards!" Jack ordered. They charged at the Heartless and started attacking. Suddenly, another two Toy Soldiers appeared in front of and behind Alexander. Two pumpkin heads with scythes for hands popped out of the toy box bodies. In a panic, Alex shouted, "_Reflect_!"

Just as the Heartless attacked, a barrier formed itself around him. The scythes hit the barrier and the damage was absorbed. The barrier went down, and the Heartless prepared to attack again. At that moment, light blasted out from where the barrier had been moments before, and it hit the Heartless. The Toy Soldiers dissipated. Sora and the others had taken care of their enemies too.

Before they entered Santa's workshop, Alex made another note of the fact that the merry-go-round in the center of the square malfunctioned sometimes, sucking in the enemies and slightly damaging them. Something that might come in handy in case of a random encounter.

* * *

Sora, Donald, Goofy, Alexander, and Jack Skellington walked into Santa Claus's house. Santa Claus himself was looking over a long parchment. "Oh, hello," he greeted them. "Have you come to see if you're on my 'nice' list?"

Sora ran up to him. Santa Claus asked, "And what might your name be?"

"Um, Sora, sir!" The Keyblade Master replied in a very childlike manner. Santa looked at his list. "Let's see... Sora..." He nodded as he found the name. "Well, according to my list, Sora, seven years ago you told everyone that you didn't believe in Santa Claus. Oh, that is unfortunate."

Sora held his head and groaned, immensely depressed by the news. Donald looked at Sora, then at Santa. "How about Donald and Goofy?"

Santa Claus looked over his list again, nodded, and smiled at Donald and Goofy. Donald jumped for joy. "Oh, boy!"

Alex sighed. "Don't bother looking for Alexander. I'm probably not on your nice list." Despite the empty warning, Santa looked for the name in the list anyway. He nodded once more. "Hmm... Yes, that is unfortunate. Two years ago you did the same as Sora, telling everyone you didn't believe in Santa Claus."

Alex shifted his gaze to the floor. Two years ago, his parents had told him that Santa Claus didn't exist. They had gotten presents signed "Santa" on Christmas because it was... well, fun. Not that Christmas wasn't a great holiday, but... the innocence of it all was gone. Alexander sighed. _Maybe Santa Claus really hadn't even existed until I had become an Interference._ Alex felt Joumae's presence in his mind as he spoke up. **_Funny how you use the word Interference as a title now..._**

"Am I on your list too, by any chance?" Jack wondered. "It's me, Jack!"

Santa Claus was visibly surprised. "Jack Skellington?" Then there was a thumping sound from the door to his workshop. "What sort of trouble did you bring this time?" he demanded, walking over to the door.

Sora glanced at Jack. "This time?" Jack shrugged and hastily said, "It's a long story!"

* * *

Santa started looking around at the workshop. There wasn't anything unusual going on... yet. There was a bit more of the workshop to hide in, though. Sora and the others also took a glance at the big assembly lines.

Alexander heard some voices above him. Turning his head only slightly so he didn't tip anyone off, he listened to the voices overhead.

"Why do we have to hide?" Lock whined. "Silence!" Maleficent quickly ordered. "Well, this is a pleasant surprise. That fool Jack brought Sora and the others with him. Now we can deal with all of them at once!"

"What do you want us to do?" Shock wondered quietly.

Santa looked up from the first landing of the ramp. "Who's there?" he demanded, glaring at the four of them. "Busted!" the three brats cried out. Maleficent disappeared in dark green flames, and Barrel used a makeshift grappling hook to bust out the window overhead, which the other two promptly took advantage of.

Jack gasped when he noticed the little kids. "It's Lock, Shock, and Barrel!"

"Not those three..." Santa's voice trailed off into a deep sigh. "I assure you, they're not with us," Jack insisted.

Santa turned to Jack and put his hands on his hips. "Well, whatever the case, they've been quite naughty. Catch them and bring them back here. They're going to get a lecture." He started to walk back to his room.

Jack looked concerned. "Uh... Mr. Claws? I wanted to talk to you about Christmas first." Santa cut him off, slightly irritated. "It'll have to wait. I need to see how things are progressing in my workshop."

Donald and Goofy looked at Alex. "What are those three doing here?" Goofy asked. Donald nodded, and added, "Yeah, how did they find out about Christmas Town?"

Alex sighed. "It sounds like Maleficent has put together some kind of scheme." Sora ran up to them, hearing the news. "Maleficent?"

Alex nodded. "She seems to have temporarily taken those three under her wing. If things go smoothly, it will stay temporary. But she might even bring back Oogie Boogie." That shocked the trio greatly.

**_Isn't that an oxymoron? Staying temporary?_** Joumae asked, his voice coated with sarcasm. Alex stifled yet another groan.

Sora turned back to Jack. "C'mon Jack – let's catch those little pranksters." After a moment, Jack muttered, "Oh, all right, then," and followed the quartet out.

Outside Santa's house, they found footprints. A straight trail of footprints that led up to Yuletide Hill. These prints were mostly faded, but they got more clear as they went along. "Let's hurry," Alex suggested. "They might be up to something as we speak." They were led all the way back to Halloween Town, past the Hinterlands and into the Curly Hill area.

* * *

Maleficent stood at the base of the Curly Hill, with Lock, Shock, and Barrel in their tub a distance behind her. "I was so looking forward to destroying that ridiculous Christmas Town," Maleficent muttered. "But now that Alexander and those imbeciles are here, I think a change of plan is called for. Revenge before pleasure, after all."

"What kind of revenge?" Shock asked in her high-pitched voice. Maleficent grimaced, but quickly changed it to a grin. "The magnificent, malevolent kind, of course."

Lock looked excited. "That sounds really bad." "Like Oogie's kinda bad!" Shock added. "And that's super-duper bad!" Barrel agreed. They all nodded in agreement.

Maleficent turned to them, a curious grin on her face. "Oogie Boogie? That bag of incensed insects. Hmph. How intriguing. And where might I find him?"

Shock sounded angry as she said, "Jack and his dumb, stupid friends destroyed him." Maleficent nodded. "Ah yes, now I remember. More intriguing still! I believe I'll bring your master back for you." The three troublemakers began to cackle evilly as green flames surrounded Maleficent.

* * *

Oogie Boogie laughed as he realized he was alive. "I feel like a million bugs!" he remarked, still laughing. "I really owe you one for this, Maleficent."

The witch nodded. "Indeed you do, Oogie. Do you remember Sora, Donald, and Goofy?"

Oogie looked outraged. "Do I remember them? Ha! You're too much! I'll never forget what they did to me..." He paused, and turned to his three minions who were sitting on the curl of the hill. "What was it they did to me?"

"Squashed you like a bug!" Shock exclaimed. "That sounds bad!" Oogie remarked.

"And Jack helped!" Lock added. "Even worse!" Oogie muttered, his rage returning.

"They creamed ya!" Barrel yelled.

"That's right, that's right!" Oogie shouted. "That's one thing I won't be forgetting anytime soon! It's that last thing I remember. And it's the only thing I remember until I teach those clowns not to mess with Mr. Oogie Boogie!"

Maleficent was amused by the extravagance of his statements. "Yes... that's right. That's the spirit. And I have the perfect plan already in mind." She turned her back on him. "Have you ever heard of Christmas Town?"

When she got no answer, she turned and saw Oogie with his head low. He looked like he had no energy left. "Mr. Oogie!" Lock cried out. "Wake up! Wake up!" Shock quickly shouted. "We want to see how bad you are!" Barrel insisted.

Maleficent sighed. "It seems he needs more time to recover."

"You bet he does!" Alex shouted.

Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Jack followed him into the fenced in area. The trio was surprised to see Maleficent there, and Jack was surprised by Oogie's presence. Maleficent turned to him, not surprised in the least. "Perhaps I can exact my revenge sooner than I expected," she muttered.

Alex summoned his Lockshield. "Does that revenge include destroying me too?" When he saw that her silence spoke for her, he demanded, "I know why you want Sora, Donald, and Goofy, but why me?"

Maleficent glared back for a second, then turned to Lock, Shock, and Barrel. "You three," she ordered, "stay here and keep Sora and the others occupied." Oogie disappeared in a puff of smoke, and herself in the green flames that were her trademark. Another dark cloud burst in the area. "My Heartless will help you," the witch's voice echoed. "But do not fail me!" The Prison Keeper Heartless appeared.

Sora and the others got into a fighting stance. Seeing that, the three kids jumped into the Prison Keeper's cage. "Stop them!" Shock yelled. "Tie 'em down!" Lock added. "Get 'em!" Barrel ordered.

The Prison Keeper held out its cage over its large mouth. After a few seconds, Lock tumbled out and fell into the Heartless's mouth. The boss became surrounded by a red flame, and it threw fireballs at them. Alexander ran up the Curly Hill, jumped off, and whacked the Prison Keeper a few times. A bit stunned now, the Heartless spat back out Lock into the cage and started slashing at the five of them with its large claws.

Alex drew it back to the ground level. Soon, the Heartless got up the urge to swallow another of the three troublemakers again. As soon as it opened its mouth, Alex jumped into the mouth and bashed the insides a few times.

That was as much as the Heartless could take. It dissipated, and Lock, Shock, and Barrel fell to the ground. Lock cackled maniacally.

"That was fun!" Shock screeched. "We need to go see Mr. Oogie now!" Barrel noted. They ran out to the graveyard again.

Jack sighed and turned to the quartet. "I hope you're ready for trouble..." Sora folded his arms. "Wasn't he the one who tried to take over Halloween Town last time?"

Alex nodded. "We'd better get going back to Christmas Town. Maleficent's planning on kidnapping Santa Claus and turning him into a Heartless!" This shocked all of them.

* * *

Santa looked around at the thin, tall trees of the Hinterlands. "Confound it. Now I've lost my way. Oh, this is utter foolishness. I should be getting ready for Christmas."

"Is that you..." Sally asked as she peeked out from behind a tree, "Mr. Sandy Claus?" Santa jumped a little and turned to her. "Yes, but... please, call me Santa Claus."

Sally stepped out. "Of course. Mr. Santa Claus, I was hoping I'd find you here. You see... It's very important that you go back to Christmas Town. I'm afraid something terrible is going to happen if you don't."

Santa considered this. "Well, I am behind on my preparations... Alright. Tell Jack I'll be waiting for him at home. He had something to say to me about Christmas."

Sally shook her head. "But that's just it." She looked at the door to Christmas Town. "Please, go home and lock the door. And if Jack knocks, don't open it!"

In the surrounding hills, someone was watching the two of them talk. Two someones, actually. "There. The large one in red," Maleficent explained.

"All I gotta do is kidnap him?" Oogie repeated, fully recovered. "That's right," Maleficent confirmed. "Lock him up at once! Then begin destroying Christmas Town. That's sure to make Sora and the other fools come running."

"And then they're all mine!" Oogie finished for her. The witch nodded. "Yes. And in the meantime, I'll turn Santa Claus into Santa Heartless!"

They began to laugh evilly. In the middle of Maleficent's cackling, Oogie suddenly stopped laughing and muttered impatiently, "Are we done?"

"Who's there?" Santa asked. He stepped in front of Sally as Oogie Boogie came running toward them.

* * *

The five comrades ran out into the graveyard. Sally met them there. "Jack!" she called out. "Oogie has kidnapped Santa Claus!"

They had already been told this news, so they ran right past her. "Let's get going!" Sora shouted, as if they could be hurrying any faster. Alex was beginning to get annoyed by Sora's enthusiasm.

* * *

Oogie Boogie laughed. Santa Claus was bound and gagged on a conveyor belt, and Maleficent was standing next to him. Oogie jumped onto the belt. "I've done a little redecorating!" he proclaimed. The changes he had made were reminiscent of his old base in Halloween Town. "Wait... Something's not quite right," he decided.

Oogie looked excited. "I know what it is! We just need a little more of that Oogie flair!" He started running around.

Maleficent looked down on Santa Claus. "I do hope our jolly old friend is looking forward to becoming a Heartless." Santa's squirmed more violently than before. Dark green flames surrounded the witch as she prepared to use her magic... but then Oogie bumped into her as he passed. The flames dissipated.

Irate, Maleficent turned toward him. "Clumsy oaf!"

Oogie stopped and looked back. "Are you still here?" he demanded. "Why don't you Oogie on back where you came from. You're crampin' my style!"

"Have you already forgotten who brought you back," Maleficent grumbled, "you insolent bag of bugs?"

"Sorry!" Oogie taunted. "Can't remember a thing!"

Green flames surrounded Maleficent once more. "Very well, you ingrate. You'll rue the day you spurned my help!" She disappeared into thin air, leaving Oogie to his fate. Oogie walked over to the big machine in the back, and stepped into one of the holes that the conveyor belts fed into. After a minute, an explosion happened, causing smoke to rise from Santa's workshop.

Sora and the others, who had just arrived on Yuletide Hill, saw the smoke. "That's Santa's house!" Donald shouted. Sally was just behind them as they hurried over to the town square.

* * *

The five of them ran into the workshop and brought out their weapons. They saw the changes made to the place, but nothing else seemed different. Then they heard a laugh above them. Everyone looked up and saw Oogie Boogie on the landing overhead. The bug bag jumped down and grabbed Sally as she walked through the door.

He landed on top of the structure in front of the conveyor belt. "Jack Skellington!" Jack got into a fighting stance. "Oogie!"

Oogie glanced at the whole party. "You and I have a score to settle, Jack! Same goes for your little sidekicks!"

"What are you planning to do with Sandy Claws?" Jack demanded. Alex saw Sandy hopping on one foot past the structure, holding her other leg in her hand.

"Who?" Oogie mumbled. "Sandy Claws? I don't know what you're talking about!" He jumped down to the belt where Santa Claus was still bound. "And why is this roly-poly red guy here? Time to go, grandpa!"

Sally gasped. Oogie put Santa back on his feet and led him to the hole in the structure that the conveyor belt came from. He laughed as he prepared to push Santa in. Out of nowhere, Sally's torn-off leg landed on the belt in front of them. "Eh?" Oogie muttered as he looked at it.

While Oogie was distracted, Santa broke free of his grip and started running toward Sally. "Mr. Santa Claus!" she shouted. Oogie growled and tried to chase after them, but Jack, Donald, Goofy, Sora, and Alexander got in his way.

"Why, you..." Oogie grumbled as the rage built up. Looking for a way to escape, he jumped back onto the conveyor belt and ran into the machine in the back. Everyone followed him, and watched as Oogie Boogie on a platform held by a crane lowered down to watched them. With a shout, Oogie mashed a green button on the panel in front of him. A barrier formed itself around the three belts, the conveyor belts started moving backward, and spikes rose up behind them. "That's right, away you go!" Oogie yelled.

"Stop!" Donald shouted. He ran into the machine, coming out at the conveyor belt to their left. "Huh?" He ran back through, panting a little, and came back to the center conveyor belt. "Not again!"

Alex looked up at Oogie Boogie, walking at the same pace that the conveyor belt was moving. Suddenly, small steel boxes slowly started pouring out of the machine. Alex remembered a reaction command. "Fore!" Alexander yelled. He whacked one of the steel boxes with the Lockshield, and it miraculously landed on Oogie's platform, cracking it a little. Sora took the hint and also started launching the boxes at Oogie with his Keyblade. Soon, the platform crumbled, and Oogie came tumbling down. The conveyor belts stopped moving.

Seeing an opening, Alex ran past the bug bag, slashing him as he went by. One seam at the side broke, and bugs started pouring out of it. Oogie didn't seam to notice it at first, but then wailed and quickly closed the seam with his hands. He sighed, then laughed as he saw that Alex's plan hadn't worked... until the seam on the other side started pouring out bugs. He moaned and wailed as he started to sink into nothing, all of the bugs pouring over the workshop.

One of the bugs scurried up to them, but Donald squashed it. Alex sighed deeply and muttered, "Sorry if that was a little anticlimactic, but I just wanted it over with. I'm a bit tired."

Donald scraped the bug away with his foot. "It got the job done." Alex looked down at the bag, and saw two small purple orbs laying there. Alex picked one up, and tossed the other to Sora. The orb disappeared, and Alex felt the Magnet element enter his body.

* * *

"Alright, Christmas is safe again!" Sora announced as they stepped out of Santa's house. Alexander yawned. "Good. Now I can get some sleep."

Jack started walking out of the house. "Perfect! I'd better get down to business!"

"What?" Donald shouted. "Leave that to Santa!"

Goofy nodded. "Yep, you oughta stick to Halloween and spooky stuff!"

"Jack?" Sally called for him as she left the house. She was carrying a red bundle of clothing. "Here, it's done."

"Wonderful!" Jack exclaimed. "Why, I love it! Thank you, Sally!" He snatched the clothes and immediately started to try them on. "Jack..." Sally mumbled. "Do you really have to do this?"

"But I make a splendid Sandy Claws!" Jack protested as he fumbled with the costume. **_Yeah, a wonderful Sandy Claws,_** Joumae commented. **_Not a very good Santa Claus._**

Santa rushed out of his house to meet them all. "Listen here, Jack Skellington. You saved me, and Christmas as well. And for that, I'm very grateful. But please promise you won't cause any more trouble! And about that suit!"

Jack twirled around and presented the incredibly thin Santa Claus outfit. It fit him perfectly, but the combination with his skeletal body made it more than a little unnerving. A little less frightening, perhaps, but not quite Christmas-y.

"Don't even think about taking over for me again!" Santa continued. Jack tried to explain. "I just thought you could use a little help this year, Mr. Claws. You must be exhausted from all the preparations. And... I wouldn't mind a second chance to get this Christmas thing right."

Santa sighed and nodded. "Yes, being Santa Claus can be tiring. But let me tell you something, Jack. Seeing the happy faces of little children when they discover the presents I've brought them makes it all worthwhile, year after year after year."

"And you, Jack..." he continued, "you love to see them gasp and see them shiver with fright. What if someone tried to take all of that away from you?" Jack seemed to consider this.

"We both have very important jobs to do, Jack," Santa insisted. "Mine is to take care of Christmas, and yours is to take care of Halloween. So we each have to do the very best we can. After all, you're the face of Halloween – Mr. Jack Skellington! The Pumpkin King! The Knight of Nightmares!" Jack seemed to lighten up at this realization.

"And even though you're fascinated with Christmas, Jack..." Santa pointed out, obviously winding down, "Halloween is your true specialty. Don't you see? Children rely on both of us to do our jobs. Halloween needs your attention... and I know Christmas needs mine – urgently." He turned back to his workshop.

"You're right!" Jack Skellington agreed. "I am the master of terror! And if Halloween has become too routine, all I have to do is think of something new that'll really make them scream!" Alex chuckled at the rhyme despite himself. "Looks like you're back on your feet."

The mayor of Halloween Town came running toward them. He was holding a bunch of scrolls in his hand. "Jack! Oh, Jack! I've been looking for you everywhere! We must go over the plans for next Halloween! I can't do a thing without your approval!"

"So true," Jack remarked as he led the way back to Halloween Town at last. **_Who _elects _an official like that?_** Joumae wondered. Alex used up the groan he had been holding back all this time, and it sounded out loudly.

"Good luck, Jack Skellington," Santa called out after him. Sora put his hands behind his head. "Well, there he goes."

Santa nodded. "Yes, and I've got lots of names to check and preparations to finish!"

Suddenly, Jack's costume flashed brightly. This startled the mayor, who dropped the plans he had been holding. "Jack, this is no time for joking!" Jack was too busy looking over the costume. "What's this? Perhaps a bit too festive for our Halloween needs."

A bright flash occurred as Sora pulled out his Keyblade, opening the gate to the next world. Sora turned back to Santa. "We better get going."

"Before you do, Sora..." Santa interrupted him, "I believe there's a friend of yours, who – if I recall correctly – was the one who told you there's no such thing as Santa Claus?"

Sora nodded. "Oh yeah... He did say that." Santa stepped forward. "Be sure to give him my very best wishes."

"I will, but..." Sora seemed hesitant. "Do you know where I can find Riku?"

Santa sighed. "No... but don't give up! Remember, if you believe in Riku, you will find him. Just as you found me." Sora's expression brightened up. "Right!"

Santa's gaze shifted to Alexander. "And Alex... Don't be afraid to be an Interference."

Alex did a take. "What?!" Yet another person was aware of the game!

"You wouldn't be an Interference if there wasn't something you could change for the better," Santa insisted. "Be careful, of course, but do what you can. Sometimes you can avoid a lot of conflict that way."

Alex thought about it. Indeed, for the last two worlds he had been merely observing and helping with the fighting. He hadn't really done anything for a change. He nodded. "Thanks, Santa Claus."

* * *

**Disclaimer: I only own Alexander, Joumae, and the Lockshield. Every other element of this story belongs to their respective owners. Namely Square-Enix and Disney.**


	17. A Day In Agrabah

Chapter 17  
A Day In Agrabah

Sora looked back at the sleeping form of Alexander in the back of their gummi ship. "We'll stop by Atlantica, now that we have Magnet," he decided. "Let's let him sleep." They disembarked.

About thirty minutes later, Alexander woke up. He yawned and rubbed his eyes. "At least I haven't forgotten how to nap..." he muttered. Standing up, he noticed the absence of Sora, Donald, and Goofy. It was obvious that they had let him sleep so that they could do some business in Atlantica. But they would be back soon enough.

Just as that thought crossed his mind, the trio appeared in the cockpit. "I still say I should sing more lines," Donald argued. Sora shook his head vigorously. "No way!"

Goofy waved. "Hiya, Alex. How was your nap?" Alexander shrugged, and stretched. "Okay, I guess. How's the musical coming along?"

The three of them looked solemn. "What?" Alex asked them. Sora grumbled, "The musical Sebastion wrote is too complicated. We can't handle it yet."

Alex thought about it. "We'll come back once we've been out in the worlds some more. Sooner or later, you'll be strong enough." He jumped into the pilot's seat. "There's another world we recognize on the other side of the loop."

Sora, being the actual pilot, motioned for Alex to get out of the seat. "What world is that?"

Alex grudgingly obliged. "Agrabah."

* * *

The quartet walked into the town. "Agrabah! We made it!" Donald remarked. "Gawrsh, I wonder how Jasmine 'n' Aladdin are doin'?" Goofy said.

"Hey, maybe Riku's with them!" Sora suggested. **_Fat chance,_** Joumae grumbled. "Yeah, and the King!" Goofy agreed. **_Hmph, even fatter chance._**

"Keep dreaming, you too," Donald scolded them. Sora chuckled. "Come on, Donald, you were thinking the same thing."

"No, I wasn't!" Donald lied.

As Sora and Donald walked on, Goofy heard flapping noises behind him. He turned around and saw a familiar red bird. "Uh-oh, it's uh... um... It's Iago!"

Hearing this, Sora and Donald immediately turned around with their weapons. Iago panicked. "Wait! You got the wrong idea!"

"You're Iago all right," Donald growled. Iago shook his head, saying, "No! I mean, that was the old me. I've turned over a new feather. I'm legit. No more scams! Honest!"

Sora folded his arms. "Bet that's your new scam."

"Ya gotta believe me!" Iago insisted. Donald turned to Sora. "Sora, let's go!"

Alex spoke up, knowing the truth. "Iago was stuck inside that lamp with Jafar, right? It looks like he escaped."

Iago sighed and stood on one of the stone steps nearby. Sora nodded. "So. Free as a bird, huh?" Donald shouted, "Have fun!"

Goofy walked over to the bird. "Gawrsh, fellas. He looks pretty sad." Iago brightened up at this. "I wanna apologize to Aladdin and Jasmine. Can you guys maybe put in a good word for me?"

Goofy nodded. "Sure, we can do that, can't we?" He glanced at Sora and Donald, who were obviously doubtful.

Alex heard a slight hissing noise. Like two blades sliding against each other. Alex whipped around and saw several Luna Bandit Heartless. Iago shot up into the air. "Watch out!" He flew away from the impending battle. Alex summoned the Lockshield, Sora summoned his Keyblade, Donald brought out his staff, and Goofy wielded his shield. They found themselves surrounded by Heartless.

The quartet fought the new types of Heartless, along with some Shadows and Soldiers. But it looked like the reinforcements had no end. After a few minutes, they were surrounded by more Luna Bandits. Sora grunted. "Where are they all coming from?"

A couple of them saw Iago and ran toward him. With a shriek, Iago flew up and out of the way. The Heartless bumped into each other. Iago fluttered backward and knocked down an urn, as well as a couple of crates. They, by some weird coincidence, landed on top of some of the Luna Bandits. There was a path clear to the peddler's shop. "This way!" Sora yelled. They quickly obliged and ran in. The Heartless didn't bother to chase.

They stopped and caught their breath in the ragged building. Iago rested on a stack of boxes. Goofy pointed out, "Y'know, we would have been goners if it wasn't for Iago." Alex raised an eyebrow at this.

Sora shrugged. "I guess we owe you one," he admitted to the bird. Iago looked happier, or at least less depressed. "Let's go to the palace," he suggested. "Jasmine and Aladdin should be there."

Alex folded his arms. "You have our trust, but you'll have to win them over on your own. Got it?" Iago nodded.

* * *

The five of them walked up to the palace gates, where Jasmine stood. "Jasmine!" Sora called to her. The princess turned around and smiled. "Sora! Donald! Goofy!" Donald stepped forward and bowed. "Your Majesty." Sora and Goofy followed suit.

Alex bowed as well. "I'm Alexander, Your Majesty. I've been traveling with these three for a while."

Jasmine chuckled. "I never had the chance to thank you for before. You helped Aladdin defeat that awful Jafar and saved Agrabah."

Sora put his hands behind his head. "All in a day's work," he added with pride. Alex noticed Iago hiding behind Goofy's back. Sora's expression changed to a worried one. "But, uh... it looks like the Heartless are up to no good again."

"Speaking of no good..." Alex muttered, snatching Iago, "I think there's someone here who wants to apologize to you, Jasmine."

Jasmine gasped. "Iago!" She tried to grab him, but Alex pulled him back. "I said he wants to apologize! Right?" he added menacingly to Iago, who nodded.

"Look, um..." he started, shaking himself out of Alex's grip, "I'm legit this time. I've turned over a new feather. I want to wipe the slate clean and try again. Do you think that maybe you could forgive me?"

Jasmine didn't look convinced. "I highly doubt that."

Iago's worry went up another notch. "Really!" he shrieked. "I'm sorry for all the trouble I caused."

"Well, now that that's taken care of," Alex interrupted him, pushing him back, "is there anything we can do for you?"

Jasmine shrugged. "I think we're all right for now." Goofy grinned. "And ya always got Aladdin." The princess sighed. "He... hasn't been himself lately."

"Huh?" Donald mumbled, and brought out his staff. "Is it because of the Heartless?"

Jasmine shook her head. "I'm not sure." She began to pace. "Usually, he's the same cheerful Aladdin. But sometimes... he just seems sad." Sora and Donald began to think.

"He leaves the palace and goes off by himself all the time," Jasmine continued. "I've asked him about it, but he says nothing's wrong. He's gone again today. What if he doesn't come back this time?"

"Hey! Maybe he's got a secret girlfriend!" Iago shouted, startling all of them. Before anyone could comment, he said, "I know! I'll go find out who she is!"

Alex whacked Iago out of the air. "Shut up, Iago!" The bird landed on the ground in a daze. He looked back at everyone else, who was staring at him and Iago. "What?" he asked innocently.

Sora turned back to Jasmine. "Don't worry. We'll look for Aladdin and ask him what's up." Jasmine gave him a hesitant smile. "Thanks." She walked back into the palace.

* * *

"Secret girlfriend..." Alex grumbled as they walked back into the town. "Boy, Iago, you're off to a great start getting on their good side."

"Hey, I said I was sorry already!" Iago protested. "Give me a break!"

"Stop, thief!" a voice cried out. They watched as a familiar small monkey ran by with a lamp. The quartet exchanged glances and nodded. Aladdin came running by. "Hi, Sora!" he quickly said as he passed. "Come back here!" a peddler yelled, running after the two. The five of them chased after the peddler.

The chase ended at a dead end, to no one's great surprise. "If you can't control that fur ball..." the peddler muttered, gasping for breath, "put a leash on him!"

Aladdin sighed. "Look, I'm sorry..." He turned to the monkey. "You should be ashamed of yourself, Abu," he scolded him. Abu placed the lamp in Aladdin's hand hesitantly.

Aladdin held out the lamp to the peddler. "...No hard feelings?" The peddler snatched it, grunted, and walked away. Aladdin turned to Abu. "Abu!" he said menacingly, making the monkey flinch.

Abu noticed the quartet and ran up to them. Aladdin walked over. "Hey guys, sorry about earlier. I was kinda in a hurry."

"We could tell," Alex remarked. "What happened?" Sora asked.

"You know Abu," Aladdin explained. "He couldn't keep his paws off that lamp." Abu started making a series of screeching noises and hand gestures, as if he was trying to explain himself. Aladdin shook a finger at him. "No talking your way out of this one!" Everyone laughed, with the exception of Alex.

"So, who might you be?" Aladdin asked, looking at Alexander. Alex kinda waved. "I'm Alexander. I've been traveling with these three for a while."

Sora spoke up. "So you can't really be down in the dumps, huh?" Aladdin looked confused. "Who said I was?"

"Jasmine," Alex replied. Donald smirked. "Got a secret girlfriend?"

Aladdin shook his head. "No way! But... I guess there's no fooling Jasmine." He sighed. "You see, Genie and Carpet left to see the world some time ago. I know that's what he wanted, and I wished him the best and all, but..."

"You miss him," Goofy finished. Sora put his hands behind his head. "I guess it's **really** quiet with Genie gone, huh?" Sora assumed. Alex chuckled at that statement.

Aladdin nodded. "That's why I come out to the city. All the people. There's always something goin' on." Then he noticed something. Iago was a few feet away from them, trembling on the ground. "What's Iago doing here?"

"Oh yeah," Sora explained, "Iago wants to apologize for what he's done." Goofy nodded. "See, he's so sorry he trembling!"

"Th-That lamp!" Iago blurted out. He started flying and rushed over to the five of them. "What about it?" Aladdin asked.

"That was Jafar's lamp! There's no way I could miss that!" Iago shouted. Aladdin looked doubtful. "Really? There's a lot of lamps just like it."

"Come on!" Iago yelled. "I was trapped in that thing **for months**! You think I wouldn't recognize it after that?"

Alex sighed. "I'm afraid he has us there. That peddler's lamp is Jafar's." Aladdin nodded. "Well, let's go get it then." They began to walk over to the peddler's shop, but halfway there Alex stopped. "What is it, Alex?" Sora asked him.

Alex didn't reply for a moment. He was thinking about Santa's words: _You wouldn't be an Interference if there wasn't something you could change for the better. Be careful, of course, but do what you can. Sometimes you can avoid a lot of conflict that way._

"I think we're going to be more careful about this than I thought," he finally replied. "The peddler is going to want money for that lamp. And, being the poor slob that he probably is, he will want a lot of it." Aladdin confirmed the idea. Alex turned to Donald. "We can't use anything from the royal treasury, so we don't exactly have a lot of cash to spend."

"Well, what do we have?" Goofy asked him. Alex pulled out his wallet, which held the munny they had collected on their journey so far. Fortunately, munny was a literally universal currency. They didn't have to worry about converting it to rupees or anything. "About 1900 munny. Let's hope that will be enough."

* * *

Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Alexander walked into the peddler's shop. "We'd like to buy that lamp from you," Sora announced. The peddler raised an eyebrow. "Really? I'm afraid it won't come cheap."

Sora glanced at Alexander, who nodded. "We can probably afford it." Alex put his hand in his pocket. "How much do you want for it?"

The peddler thought about it. "Can I interest you in another fine lamp?" Sora shook his head. "No, that's the one we need." The peddler grinned. "Okay, I'll sell it to you... for 3000 munny."

Alex stepped forward. "That's outrageous! 1500 munny!" The peddler raised an eyebrow. "2500."

"1600!"  
"2400!"  
"1750!"  
"2250!"  
"...1900! And not a single munny more!"

The peddler grinned. "...You need this lamp that much? Okay... I'll just give it to you... if you bring me a treasure, say, fit for a sultan." Everyone was shocked by this.

* * *

Alex hung his head. "Sorry, guys. I'm not much for haggling..." Goofy patted his back. "It's alright. You did your best."

Aladdin seemed to be in deep thought. "Treasure, eh?" he mumbled.

Donald spoke up. "Why can't we give him something from the royal treasury?" Aladdin shook his head. "It's not mine to take. I can't ask Jasmine or the Sultan for something like that."

Iago fluttered over to Aladdin. "Hey! How about the Cave of Wonders?" Sora and Donald glared at the bird, still not trusting him.

Aladdin grinned. "That's not a bad idea. Okay, Iago, you lead the way. If we can pull this off... I might even accept your apology."

Alex cut their conversation short. "Now wait a minute. It would be safe to assume that we're not the only ones after Jafar's lamp, right?"

After a moment, the others agreed.

"That's right," Alex muttered. "Pete's probably here, ready to mess things up." The trio was shocked.

"Pete?" Aladdin repeated in confusion. Sora shrugged. "A fat guy who's been causing trouble for ages."

"If we leave that lamp unguarded, Pete might get his hands on it. I say one of us stays here and keeps an eye on the lamp while the rest go and find something in the Cave of Wonders."

Everyone stared at Alex. "Alright," Donald decided, "you stay. We'll go." Alex sighed, realizing that he was staying because he had suggested it. "Very well." Sora, Donald, Goofy, Aladdin, and Iago left.

Alex leaned on a wall. Nothing happened for a long while. After some time passed, Alex caught himself nodding off. "I guess that nap wasn't enough." To his eventual dismay, he fell asleep while leaning on the wall.

* * *

After what looked like an hour later, he felt himself being shoved to the ground. "Haha!" a deep familiar voice cackled. "Sleeping while on guard duty, eh? It's that much more easy for me!"

Alex got up after Pete had gone into the peddler's shop. "Well, I'm fully awake now," he remarked. He quickly summoned the Lockshield.

"Gimme that lamp, ol' man!" Pete's voice came from inside.

"Ohh, no!" the peddler shouted. "I'm trading it for treasure. This lamp is going to bring me riches!"

The peddler ran out of the shop, with Pete close behind. "Oh, no you don't!" Pete grumbled, chasing after the peddler with the lamp. Alex stepped between the peddler and Pete. "Hey, Pete," he muttered, pointing the Lockshield's edge at his chunky body. "Thanks for the wakeup call!"

"Wakeup call? You were asleep?" Sora's voice came from beside him. Alex was surprised and embarrassed, and the reaction gave Pete enough time to slip past him and resume his chase. "Hey!" Alex yelled angrily after him. But he gave up and sighed. "Sorry. I hadn't gotten enough sleep. I'm fine now, though." Without another word, the six of them started chasing after Pete, going all the way to the palace.

* * *

Pete caught up to the peddler. "Thank you," he stated as he snatched the lamp. Enraged, the peddler increased speed. "It's mine!" he yelled, as he dove for the lamp and grabbed it out of Pete's hands.

Sora and company arrived at the scene. "Lamp hog!" Pete shouted. "Go away!" the peddler ordered.

"Gotcha!"

"No fair!" the peddler yelled. Pete was holding the lamp up high in one hand, while using the other to restrain the salesman. "Heh heh, I win!"

At that moment, Iago flew by and grabbed the lamp with his talons. It took Pete a good ten seconds to realize it was gone.

"Nice one, Iago!" Sora shouted.

"Way to go!" Aladdin cheered.

"Don't drop it!" Donald advised.

"Bring it here!" Alex ordered.

"Look! Behind you!" Goofy yelled.

Both Pete and the peddler came running after Iago. The bird led them straight into a wall. The two chasers collided, while Iago barely escaped the crash. The peddler was out cold, and Pete had a headache. He glared at Iago, who, in his pride, didn't notice that he was also heading for a wall. He crashed, and the lamp dropped to the ground.

Donald and Goofy gasped as Pete picked the lamp up. The antagonist laughed. "Nice try, bird brain! Just wait 'till Jafar's free! He's going to make one beauty of a Heartless!"

The usual trio charged, but then a violent rumbling happened in the area. It lasted for a few moments, and everyone there was confused as to what the source was.

Alex looked up to the sky. He saw a brighter blue shape come speeding toward them. It did a few twirls and loops and then shouted, "I'm **home**!" It was Genie.

"Al! It's been eons!" Genie collided into Pete. "Al, you princely little muffin, you! Cosmic travel can be so lonely without a friend. To think I left you forlorn and Genie-less... Oh, the **humanity**!"

"Genie?" Aladdin quietly mumbled. Apparently, Genie was confusing Pete for Aladdin.

"Hey, Al, have you been puttin' on weight? Aw, of course, what am I saying? You're living at the palace now. 'Aladdin!' 'Jasmine!'"

Alex was trying **very** hard to keep himself from laughing.

"I can just picture it... Wait, tell me. Am I being a pest? Just a big blue pest? Aw, who cares, Al! I'm just so glad to **see** you!"

"Genie!" Aladdin shouted. By now, Alex was clutching his stomach. It gets quite painful when you laugh that hard.

Genie looked between Aladdin and Pete. "Oops," he mumbled, dropping a dizzy Pete to the ground. Pete quickly regained his senses and got up. "I'll teach you to make a fool out of me!"

Genie ignored him and laughed as he hugged Aladdin. Alex sighed deeply as the mirth from the encounter finally passed. Genie looked at Sora and the gang. "Who's this?" he asked, indicating Alex.

Alex waved. "I'm Alexander. I've been traveling with them..." He suddenly rolled his eyes. "Yada yada yada, you get the drill." He was quite tired of these introductions by now.

Everyone looked back at Pete, who yelled, "Time for Plan B! I'm finishin' you mugs off right now!" He slammed his fist onto the ground. In a dramatic display of fire and ice, the Blizzard Lord and Volcanic Lord Heartless appeared.

Everyone brought out their weapons. Alex ran up to the Blizzard Lord and slashed it a little. Sora went for the Volcanic Lord. The Blizzard Lord gathered a bunch of ice around its "mouth" and was about to launch it at Alex, who remembered the Blizzagun reaction command. Alex jumped up and blocked the ice beam. Then Alex pushed the Heartless away, toward the Volcanic Lord.

At the same time, Sora had used the Firagun technique and had hurled the Volcanic Lord toward Alex's foe. The two collided, and were stunned for a few moments. Everyone used that time to get a quick flurry of attacks in, which pretty much finished them off.

The Heartless trembled and dissipated, a huge heart floating out of them when they did. Everyone lowered their weapons. "You!" Pete shouted. "You've messed with me for the last time! I'm gonna get you yet!" He ran for the exit. Alex raised an eyebrow. "Did he just contradict himself?"

Genie and Aladdin gave each other a thumbs-up. Just then, the Magic Carpet flew by, with Abu riding it. Iago picked up the lamp and followed Carpet.

* * *

They decided to place it in an empty stone chest down in the basement of the palace, with a huge slab of stone covering it. "You sure it'll be safe in there?" Alex asked.

Donald shrugged. "At least for a while." Goofy stared into the stone chest, where the lamp lay. Sora and Aladdin closed the stone chest, and that was the last they saw of it... The lamp, anyway.

* * *

They stood at the palace gates again. Jasmine, Alex, Sora, Donald, and Goofy stood in a circle.

"Abu!" Aladdin shouted. The monkey was running with a huge red gem. "Catch him!" Aladdin ordered them. Abu came to a screeching halt as Sora, Donald, and Goofy dove at him and landed on top of him. Donald stared at the gem, now free from Abu's hands.

Aladdin walked over to them. "He must have secretly stolen it from the Cave of Wonders."

Donald snatched the gem. "Abu!" he scolded the monkey. But then the duck became enthralled by the gem's shine as well. "I guess some things are just hard to resist," Goofy reasoned.

Donald shook his head vigorously, trying to snap out of it. "Aw, who needs it!" He pretended to throw it, but hid the gem behind his back. Alex snatched the gem from Donald's hand.

Donald chuckled nervously. "Oh... I guess it got stuck!" Alex nodded, a doubtful look on his face. "A likely excuse," he muttered sarcastically. Suddenly, the gem was surrounded by a familiar light, which brightened up the entire area. Sora pulled out his Keyblade, and a new path became open.

Aladdin walked over to them. "Sora... What is it?" Sora paused, and said, "I think it's time for us to go." Jasmine looked at Aladdin, then back to Sora. "Will you be back?"

"We will, I promise!" Sora assured them. Aladdin gave him a thumbs-up. Sora looked up at the sky suddenly. Everyone else did too, expecting to find something there besides clouds.

* * *

**Disclaimer: I only own Alexander, Joumae, and the Lockshield. Every other element of this story belongs to their respective owners. Namely Square-Enix and Disney.**


	18. Adventures In The Savannah

Chapter 18  
Adventures In The Savannah

"No, really guys. I'm alright," Alexander insisted as he stared at the Lamp Charm that Genie had given him before they had left Agrabah. "I've had all the sleep I need. I won't doze off now."

The trio still eyed him suspiciously. "And what makes you think that?" Sora asked.

Alex shrugged and said, "It seems that this universe doesn't require nearly as much sleep. You guys can go adventuring through the whole thing without even a wink. My body needed more time to adapt to that... aspect." He laughed. "I don't need nearly as much sleep in this universe. I'm fine."

Donald sighed. "Very well. What world is next?"

Alex stifled a groan. This one was going to be complicated. "This is the last world on this loop." He indicated the paths joining up, just as they had in the case of Olympus Coliseum. "We're going to the Pride Lands."

* * *

Four beams of light shot down into the world, and the new forms of the quartet appeared. Sora and Alexander were lions, Donald was a pelican, and Goofy was a turtle. "Hey!" Sora shouted in surprise. "Check us out."

They looked at their surroundings. They were in a clearing of a dark rocky expanse. There were acid ponds with green mist rising from them at the edges of the area. "This place is kinda creepy, though," Sora remarked. Donald mumbled an agreement. Goofy gasped as they found themselves surrounded by hyenas.

One of the hyenas, Ed, laughed hysterically. Sora looked around at the hyenas lining the cliffs above them. "Heartless?" Alex shook his head. "Hyenas, Sora. They live here."

"Don't mind us!" Donald announced. "Just passing through. We won't be any trouble." Sora nodded hastily. "Yeah, that's right!"

"Don't be silly," another hyena, Shenzi, interrupted them as she circled them. "We'd love you to stick around for lunch." Banzai, one of the others, was circling them too.

"Um... we didn't bring anything to eat," Sora pointed out hesitantly. Banzai laughed. "That's not gonna be a problem!" Goofy gulped. "Gawrsh, Sora – I think **we're** the lunch!" Ed cackled insanely again.

They started running, going in different directions. Alex tripped over his own feet on the first few steps. Sora ended up on his back as well. "Going somewhere?" Banzai demanded, walking over to Sora. The other three were cornered as well.

Banzai got ready to bite, but then a roar sounded out through the clearing. The hyena groaned. "Man, that Scar's got the worst timing."

"Just let him roar," Shenzi advised. Banzai shook his head. "Nah, we better go see what he wants. Sounds like he's grumpy enough already." Shenzi sighed deeply. "Fine."

All the hyenas left the clearing, leaving the quartet to get back on their feet. Alex walked back to his friends, albeit slowly and hesitantly. "Talk about a close call. We were completely defenseless!" He wobbled a little, and fell to his stomach.

"I dunno what that was about," Sora muttered, "but I'm glad it's over!" Donald and Goofy sighed, seemingly in agreement.

"Everything's harder on four legs..." Sora complained. Alex regained his balance. "Amen to that."

"Better start practicing!" Donald suggested, being the one who didn't have four legs. Goofy spoke up, saying, "I found a trick to it. Here, lemme show ya."

* * *

Alexander ran around the clearing a few times and came back to Goofy. "Okay, I think I have the hang of it." He lifted one paw, and the Lockshield appeared under it. "That still leaves how we are going to fight. There's no doubt that we'll be fighting Heartless here."

Sora held the handle of his Keyblade in his mouth. Donald held his staff his with talons. Goofy carried his shield on top of his shell. Alex looked at the three of them, then back to the Lockshield. "I can't hold it by the handle..." he muttered, biting on the handle and holding it up. It covered his face. "I can't see this way." He placed it back down.

"Well, we can probably use moves we couldn't use before in these forms," Sora reasoned. "Why not carry it by the edge?"

Alex bit down on the edge of the Lockshield and picked it up. Indeed, he could probably fight this way. He could use the sharp edge on the other side to slash the Heartless up. He spat the Lockshield back out. "This will have to do, since I'm a lion with a shield..." He sighed.

They put away their weapons and walked into the Elephant Graveyard. They heard a commotion, and turned to see a lioness evading some Living Bone Heartless. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Sora asked his friends.

"Heartless?" Donald confirmed. "What do we do?" Goofy wondered. Sora ran toward the lioness and stood between the Living Bones and her. "Stay back!" he ordered the Heartless.

Everyone summoned their weapons. Alex charged in and spun around, slashing one of the Heartless. Goofy started spinning as well, whacking another into oblivion. Donald started casting magic to bombard the Living Bones. Sora leaped at the Heartless and slashed them with the Keyblade. Soon it was all clear. "Definitely Heartless," Sora decided.

"Thank you," the lioness, Nala, mumbled. "You really saved me." Goofy nodded. "We're just glad you're okay."

"Did you see any other Heartless around here?" Sora asked her. Nala looked confused for a moment. "Heartless... Is that what they're called? I'm not sure if there are any others... I don't usually hunt outside the Pride Lands."

"Pride Lands?" Donald repeated in confusion. Sora stepped forward. "Hey, do you know if a guy named Riku is there? Or some bad guys in black hoods? Or maybe this really big bully named Pete?"

Nala shook her head. Alex stepped forward as well. "Sora... Riku wouldn't be there, the Organization definitely wouldn't be here..." He looked at Nala, who was confused by this conversation. Alex ended it there. Sora sighed. "Oh well, we might as well go take a look, anyway."

"Wait," Nala cut in. "The Pride Lands are dangerous. Scar and the hyenas have made things unbearable for everyone. There's no food left. They've driven off the prey. We're about to starve."

"We can handle a little danger," Sora assured her. "You just saw us beat those Heartless, didn't you?" Alex nodded. "Yeah, and those Living Bone types are about as tough as they come."

"I guess you're right..." Nala figured. "You could be just what the kingdom needs. Maybe you can help us."

"Ya mean take on this Scar guy and all those hyenas?" Goofy asked. "Scar?" Donald repeated.

"He took over when our last king, Mufasa, died," Nala explained. Alex chuckled at the thought. "So Scar is your king. You want us to take down your king?" Nala nodded. Sora ran back to Donald and Goofy. "Wait just a minute."

As those three talked amongst themselves, Alex turned to Nala. "Has there been anyone... new... near Scar? Perhaps a fat dark blue stupid-looking lion?" Nala's eyebrows shot up. "Yes... there has been someone like that."

Alex sighed. "That's our Pete." He walked back to his friends, and Sora ran over to Nala. Alexander gave Sora a funny look. "He seems a bit too excited about meddling in local politics, don't you think?" he asked Donald and Goofy. Donald nodded. "There he goes again..."

Nala nodded and ran off. Sora slowly walked back to his friends. "She's gonna go on ahead and tell the other lionesses. We're supposed to meet her at a place called Pride Rock."

* * *

They started their journey to Pride Rock. A thought crossed Alexander's mind as they walked into the big savannah area. He laughed. The others turned back to him. "What is it, Alex?" Sora asked him.

"Oh, I was just thinking... I don't even wanna know what my sister would do if she saw me like this," Alex added with another laugh.

The trio exchanged confused glances. "You have a sister?" Goofy asked. Alex stopped laughing and looked a little confused. "I didn't mention that?" Donald shook his head. "No. We've been so busy traveling... We don't know anything about you, Alex."

Sora nodded. "Yeah, what's your family like?" Alexander looked a little embarrassed. "Do we have to talk right now? Don't we have an appointment?" Sora shrugged. "We can talk on the way."

They resumed their trek. "My sister, Erica..." Alex began. "Well, she's just like any other younger sibling. She can be annoying as all get out. She's my sister, though, so we've shared some good times... But she has some darker moments."

Donald sighed. "Sounds like Daisy in a way."

"Yeah, and neither of them would like it if they knew we were talking about them in this way, would they?" Alex added with a grin. Donald shook his head.

"So... how old is she?" Sora asked, trying to get the conversation moving along.

Alex chuckled. "She's thirteen months younger than me. I'm fourteen right now, going to be fifteen in a couple weeks... and she's thirteen going on fourteen."

Goofy was surprised. "Your birthday's in a couple weeks?" Alex nodded, faltered, then shook his head. "A couple weeks as of when I became an Interference. It's been a little more than a week since then." He looked up at the sky. "Strange... I can't help but worry. I don't know what's going on back home. I've been gone for a pretty long time..."

Sora felt like he could sympathize. "Well, if it's any comfort, I've been away from home for over a year. I know what it's like to worry about that."

Alex looked back forward. "We'll talk about this another time. We're here." Before them stood Pride Rock.

* * *

The quartet walked by the sleeping lionesses. They stopped as they saw Nala and a baboon with a staff come toward them. "That's him," Nala introduced Sora to the baboon, Rafiki. Rafiki stepped forward and got into Sora's face. "Uh..." Sora stuttered, "what?" The baboon stroked his goatee as he took a gander at the quartet.

The other lionesses sat up, looking at the strange event taking place. Rafiki walked back to Nala and whispered something into her ear. Nala lowered her head in dismay. The lionesses went back to lying down.

"What is it?" Sora asked, rather bewildered at this point. Nala sighed and explained as the baboon walked away, "I told Rafiki you might be able to help us force Scar and the hyenas out of the Pride Lands. But he says it won't work."

Alex stifled a groan. Nala went on, "You see, whoever saves the Pride Lands will be our next king... and he has to have the right qualities." Sora was still confused. "Meaning...?"

Alex sighed. "You don't fit the bill, Sora. Apparently we're not cut out for the job." Sora sighed and hung his head.

"I'm sorry you came all this way," Nala apologized to them. Sora waved it aside. "Hey, no – it's okay." Nala stepped forward and lowered her voice. "You'd better go before Scar finds out you're here. I'm really sorry."

As they turned toward the exit, they found Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed walking toward them. Before they knew it, they were surrounded by hyenas. The quartet got into a fighting stance.

"Hey," Banzai remarked, "a snack." Shenzi shook her head. "Snack? Nah, we got us a four course meal." After a moment, another roar was heard. Everyone looked up at the overhanging rock behind them. "Look at that, here comes Scar – the king," Banzai noted. There was a familiar face beside Scar. It was a fat dark blue stupid-looking lion. Sora gasped. "And Pete!"

Scar leaped down onto the rocks beside him and landed on their level. As he approached them, Pete tried to do the same. He ended up bouncing off some of the rocks and landing on his stomach. The quartet rolled their eyes almost in unison. Pete slowly stood up on all fours. "My back..." he groaned.

"What are you doing here?" Sora demanded. Pete laughed despite his blunder. "Aw, the cute li'l kitty's worried about me. If I were you, I'd be more worried about my friends!" Sora turned back to the others, who were completely cornered by hyenas. "Sora!" Donald shrieked. "We're surrounded!" Goofy said, stating the obvious. Alex glanced nervously from one hyena to another. "Finish up your talk and lets hightail it outta here!" he ordered, summoning the Lockshield and holding the edge with his teeth.

Scar turned to the lionesses behind him. "Go on, ladies – you've got some hunting to do." One of them spoke up. "The herds have moved on, Scar. We can't hunt in a land with no prey."

"No prey?" Scar repeated in disbelief. "Then what do you call this?" he asked, indicating the quartet. Sora was shocked. "We're not prey!"

"Oh," Scar remarked. "Nice and fresh, too." Pete turned to leave. "Well, they're all yours, Scar." He loped away.

Scar shifted his gaze back to Sora. "Hmph." He got ready to pounce, but Nala tackled him right before he did. Sora gasped.

"Run!" Nala ordered. They quickly obliged. Alex spun around and whacked aside a few hyenas, making a break in the line that they were quick to take advantage of. They ran for their lives. Nala came up behind them and passed them. "Follow me!" she shouted.

* * *

Alex sighed and plopped onto his stomach for the third time that day. They had escaped Pride Rock and given the hyenas the slip. "I hate hyenas," was all he could say.

"Sorry about all that," Nala apologized again. Sora waved the worry aside again. "Don't worry. You saved us! We would have been goners if it wasn't for you."

Nala shook her head. "No, I mean, getting all of you into this." She sighed. "Things have just been getting worse since Mufasa died. If only Simba was here..."

Sora gave her a funny look. "Wait, Simba's alive..." he explained. "He was fighting with us not too long ago!" Alex nodded to confirm this. Sora was referring to Simba as a summon in the first game.

Nala brightened up at this. "What? Really? ...Can you tell me about him?" Sora nodded. "Sure!" Nala looked across the savannah. "But let's not talk here."

Alex nodded, picking himself up off the ground. "Yeah, let's get a bit more distance between us and them first." They all started running toward the path to the Wildebeest Valley.

* * *

They arrived at the valley, and were immediately greeted by the sight of a huge hole in the path in front of them. Below was a long drop with several sharp rocks scattered along the bottom. "Woah..." Sora mumbled as he looked down, his voice trembling a little.

Nala backed up, ran up to the hole and leaped over it, successfully landing on the other side. "Wow!" the quartet said in unison. Sora kept looking down. Alex was plain staying away from the hole. He had a fear of heights, remember?

"What's wrong?" Nala yelled back to them, her voice echoing across. "We're never going to make it!" Sora called back. Nala sighed. "I guess Rafiki was right."

"What?" Sora shouted, not hearing her. Nala shook her head. "Never mind. It's not important. Here, I'll show you how. You can do it!"

* * *

Alex sprang forth, leaping across the huge hole and landing on his feet next to Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Nala. He sighed. "Sorry it took so long. I've got a fear of heights."

Nala shook her head. "I noticed." They continued their journey.

* * *

"When Simba's father, King Mufasa, died," Nala continued, "we were told that Simba died alongside him."

Sora was intrigued. "Who told you that?" Nala stopped in her tracks as the realization hit her. "Scar." Alex smirked and continued walking. "Ah, so maybe he knew all along? Or even worse..."

They heard footsteps. Everyone turned back and saw Rafiki. "It is time," the old baboon declared. He pointed his staff at the path onward. Nala looked happier. "It must be Simba!" She started running. "Sora! Hurry!"

Sora hadn't been given a warning. "...Wait up!" he called after her as he tried to catch up. Donald and Goofy followed Sora. Alex watched the four of them fade into the distance. He looked at Rafiki. "This isn't going to be easy," he muttered. Alex chased after his comrades.

* * *

They passed through the wastelands and the jungle and found themselves at an oasis. There was a familiar lion surrounded by Aerial Knocker Heartless. The lion roared loudly, and all of the Heartless faded into darkness.

"Simba!" Sora called out. Simba looked at the quartet as they began to run toward him. He got into a fighting pose. Sora stopped in his tracks. "I-It's me – Sora! Donald and Goofy are here, too!"

Simba slowly approached them and stared at them for a moment. His eyes widened. "Sora! Donald! Goofy!" He pounced onto Sora and nuzzled his stomach, which was the lion equivalent of a big hug, apparently. Donald, Goofy, and Alex laughed at the sight. Simba looked at them.

"Who's this?" Simba asked, indicating Alex. Sora said, "That's our new friend Alex. He's been traveling with us for a while."

Simba looked at the trio he had known while he had been a summon in the first journey. "What happened to you?" he wondered. Before they could answer, they heard some screaming from the jungle. "Help! Simba! Heeelp!" a voice called out. "She's gonna eat us!" a deeper voice added.

"Timon?" Simba shouted. "Pumbaa?" He turned to Sora, who had finally gotten up. "Something must have happened in the jungle! I have to go help my friends!" He dashed into the jungle. Sora nodded. "Okay, we'll back you up!" They chased after Simba.

In the jungle, Nala closed in on Timon the meerkat and Pumbaa the warthog, who were both trembling in fear. Nala started to pounce, but Simba tackled her halfway. Sora stopped. "Simba! Wait!"

Simba and Nala started to fight. "Stop!" Donald shouted. "It's Nala!" Sora added. "Don't you recognize her?" The fight continued for a few more seconds, until finally Nala was on top of Simba.

Simba finally calmed down. "Nala?" The lioness was confused by this, and got off him. She gave him a funny look. Simba added, "It's me, Simba!"

Nala finally recognized her old friend. "Simba! You are alive!" They bonked heads and circled each other. Timon and Pumbaa just looked on in shock. "Hey!" Timon demanded, "What's goin' on here?" They turned back to the quartet, who were right behind them. They screamed and ran.

Timon hid behind Simba's front paw. "Don't worry," Simba assured him. "They're all friends of mine." Timon stepped away from his hiding spot, his nerves still shot. "So that means... nobody's planning to eat anybody else for lunch, right?"

Sora nodded, and Alex tried to keep himself from giggling. Pumbaa hid in a corner. "Are you sure they don't wanna eat me like I'm some kinda pig?" he shrieked.

"We won't..." Sora insisted, "but you are a pig, right?" Pumbaa turned around, seemingly outraged. "Call me Mr. Pig!" Everyone laughed for a while at that.

After the mirth passed, Simba leaned down and said to Timon, "Could you guys excuse us for a few minutes?" Timon shrugged. "Why am I not surprised?" Simba and Nala walked back to the oasis together.

Sora glanced at Timon. "So how do you guys know Simba?"

Timon laughed. "'How do we know him'? Listen, we rescued him all the way back when he was only this big." He put his hand up to his knee, which was obviously an overstatement. "The kid seemed troubled by his past, so we taught him 'hakuna matata'!"

Sora, Donald, and Goofy were intrigued. Alex wasn't. "Hakuna matata?" Sora repeated. Timon nodded. "Yep. It means leave your worries behind and live for today! C'mon, say it with me! Hakuna!"

The trio shouted, "Matata!" They, along with Pumbaa, formed something resembling a conga line. They repeated hakuna matata like that all the way up to the oasis, which nearly drove Alexander crazy.

They stopped as they saw Nala walk away from Simba. "He's not the Simba I remember," she muttered to herself. "Something about hakuna matata..." They looked at Simba. He was staring over the edge of the cliff, looking solemn.

Alex walked over to him. "Simba..." He paused as he looked for the words he wanted to say. "I can understand hakuna matata. It is important to put the past behind you." Simba looked back at Alex, who continued. "But it's foolish to believe that the past will simply disappear if you ignore it. The past makes up who we are, Simba. If you forget the past, no matter how troubled it is... you'll forget who you are today."

Sora and the others just stared at him. This was the first time Alex had made such a speech. Ever. Explanations, sure, but sappy motivational speeches...? They had never expected this from him.

Simba, sensing that the lecture was over, walked by without a word and disappeared into the jungle.

* * *

It was very early in the morning. The sun hadn't come up yet. Simba looked at the valley in front of him, his past haunting his thoughts. "My father's dead," he mumbled to himself. "And it's because of me... It's my fault. I can't go back... It won't change anything." His mind went back to a time when his father was still alive, and a young Simba was with him watching a starry night like it was tonight.

_"Look at the stars," Mufasa advised. "The great kings of the past look down on us from those stars. So whenever you feel alone, just remember that those kings will always be there to guide you... And so will I."_

"Father..." Simba begged the stars, "are you there?" Suddenly, a swirl of clouds started to expand and swirl and glow, with an image of Mufasa appearing in the center of it. Simba gasped.

"Simba..." Mufasa scolded his son calmly, "you have forgotten who you are. You must take your place in the Circle of Life."

"How can I go back?" Simba demanded. "I'm not who I used to be."

"Remember who you are," Mufasa's image insisted. After a moment, the image began to fade. Simba tried running toward it, but he stopped at the cliff. When he looked up again, the whole cloudy expanse was gone. "You can all come out now," Simba said stiffly. Sora, Donald, Goofy, Timon, Pumbaa, and Alexander came out of the bushes behind him.

Simba turned to face them. "I'm going back to face my past. I could use your help." Timon smiled. "He really is a king..." he marveled. The sun rose directly behind Simba, making him seem to glow.

* * *

Simba gasped as he saw the ruin that was the savannah. It had once been his home, not a barren wasteland. Timon was skeptical. "Wait a minute. We're going to fight your uncle for **this**?"

Simba looked back at his comrades, then back to Pride Rock. True, it wasn't a great piece of real estate, but... "Yes, Timon. This is my home."

* * *

Scar looked over his remote kingdom. Nothing was out of order... yet. He looked up at the rocks behind him. There was Simba, glaring down at him. Scar gasped as Mufasa's son leaped down and started to approach him. "Simba!" he blurted out. "You're... alive!"

"This kingdom doesn't belong to you," Simba stated. Nala came up behind them. "Simba's the rightful king!" Simba walked toward Scar, who stepped back until he was cornered. "The choice is yours, Scar," Simba told him. "Either step down or fight."

Scar glanced at the wall behind him, seeing no way out in that direction. "Must this all end in violence?" he asked innocently. Scar slowly walked past Simba. "I'd hate to be responsible for the death of a family member, Simba..."

Alex glared at Scar. "You mean **another** family member!" Everyone was shocked by this. Scar looked innocent. "What might you mean by that?" He looked at Simba. "He might have put the past behind him, but I wonder if his faithful subjects have..." Nala looked confused. "Simba, what is he talking about?"

Scar circled Simba with an air of triumph. "Go on. Tell them who's responsible for Mufasa's death!" Simba shifted his gaze to the ground. "I am."

Nala gasped. Alex looked ready to pounce. "Liar! You're the one who killed Mufasa! You betrayed him, and sent Simba into exile so that you could take the throne! After that, you lied to everyone, saying that the rightful heir had died!"

Simba's eyes widened. Sora, Donald, and Goofy gave Alex a weird look. Nala still looked confused, but she seemed to believe it. Scar tried his best to look innocent. "Now what right does some random cub have to make an accusation like that?"

Sora growled. "If Alexander says it's the truth, then it's the truth!" Alex glanced at Sora with a strange look. He had no idea that Sora had this kind of confidence in him...

Simba couldn't refuse that offer. He pounced onto Scar, sending the antagonist to his back. "Murderer!" Simba shouted, pressing his paw against Scar's neck. "Tell them the truth!"

Scar looked agitated, but not angry as he admitted the truth. "Alright. Alright! I did it." Simba wasn't satisfied. "Louder!" he ordered, pressing harder.

"I... killed... Mufasa!!" Scar yelled, enunciating every syllable for everyone to hear. At that moment, Shenzi, Banzai and Ed came out of the king's chambers and piled onto Simba. Scar used that opportunity to escape to the peak.

Simba faced the three hyenas down. Sora ran up to them. "Simba! You get Scar! We'll handle these guys!" Simba nodded and ran after Scar. More hyenas appeared and surrounded Sora. Alex groaned. "Would you at least wait for us next time?"

Timon rode Pumbaa as he charged into the group of hyenas. "'Scuse me! Pardon me! Comin' through!" Timon shouted as the hyenas went flying. They stopped and stared the other enemies down, but panicked and ran into the king's chambers as Shenzi, Banzai and Ed chased them. The quartet was quick to follow.

The three hyenas were circling Pumbaa and Timon. Everyone brought out their weapons and charged. Alex rushed in and bashed around the hyenas, sending them in different directions. Sora, Donald, and Goofy chased after them. Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed were very quick, and it was sometimes hard to land an attack. But they didn't have much stamina besides, and were quickly beaten. The three hyenas hightailed it out of the chamber.

Sora looked at Nala. "Where's Simba?" The lioness looked at the path to the side. "He went up there." Alex got a sickened look on his face. "To the peak?" He shuddered. "Heights..."

* * *

The quartet raced up to the flat peak, where Simba and Scar were fighting. "Simba!" Donald shouted, getting ready to charge in. Sora raised a paw to stop him. "This is his fight, Donald."

The two lions exchanged a few blows, and Scar knocked him down near the edge of the peak. Simba looked up as Scar jumped toward him to make the final blow. When Scar landed, Simba used his hind feet to propel him forward, sending Scar plummeting over the edge.

Simba looked over the edge of the cliff. "You're okay!" Sora shouted. Alex growled. "Guys, it's not over yet. Not by a long shot."

A familiar voice chuckled behind them. "The punk's right. That was just a sneak preview!" Everyone turned around to find Pete right behind them. Pete pointed his paw at the cliff. As the others looked at the cliff, Alex muttered to Pete, "I promise you, this will be the last time you'll be a thorn in our side."

"Heh heh," Pete chuckled. "I should be the one sayin' that. Look." Alex finally looked, but he knew what he was going to see. Scar's paw appeared and grabbed the edge of the peak. Everyone except Alex and Pete jumped in surprise. "Anger and jealousy turned the king of Pride Rock into a Heartless!" Pete informed them as Scar pulled himself up. "Oh, your kingdom's gonna rise again... But this time, as the Pride Lands of Darkness!"

Scar leaped over the edge and faced the five of them, ready for one last fight. The sky around them turned to a dark blue, and the floor of the peak became transparent, revealing some kind of huge skeleton beneath the surface. Simba stepped forward. "That's what you think!" he retorted. Everyone got into a fighting stance.

Scar immediately charged at them. Alex shouted, "Simba!" Simba immediately got the idea. "Together!" he agreed, getting ready for the Limit. They stood together and stomped the ground. A bunch of tall, sharp rocks rose up from the peak and shot Scar into the air. When Scar landed, Alex and Simba started using an X-Claw technique, where Alex would slash at him sideways and Simba would do so vertically. They did that for a few more seconds, then stood back together and roared, sending a bunch of energy blasting up around them, which hit Scar.

Scar didn't take much more than that. He slowly stepped toward them, trying to reach them. Then a light left his body, and Scar collapsed. The lion was dead, and Pete was nowhere to be seen. Alex sighed. "It's finally over." He plopped once more onto his stomach.

* * *

Sora, Donald, Goofy, Alex, Timon, Pumbaa, and the lionesses watched as Simba walked forward on the overhanging rock to assume his authority. At the end of it, Simba roared. The lionesses roared in unison. A cloudy expanse appeared in the distance in front of Simba, and the image of Mufasa appeared once more. A ray of light beamed down onto Simba. The light looked rather familiar.

Sora held the Keyblade between his teeth. A bright flash occurred all around them, and Sora opened the gate, just like he'd done many times before. As the light faded, Timon was left with a surprised look on his face. "Hey, what's with the light show?"

"We have to say goodbye for a little while," Sora explained. "I'll go tell Simba," Pumbaa offered. Goofy turned to face them. "Aw, he's prob'ly busy. Just tell him we'll be back soon."

Timon sighed. "Oh, that's right – he's king now. He's gonna be so busy he'll prob'ly forget all about his two best buddies." Sora walked over to them. "Well, you always got hakuna matata, right?"

"Guess so," Pumbaa admitted. Timon was outraged. "Whaddya mean, 'Guess so'? What if he forgets to tell the carnivores who we are? One look at you, and you're a pig roast!"

"That's **mister** Pig Roast," Donald corrected him.

"Same thing!" Pumbaa declared. "And I'm not sticking around to be anybody's pork dinner!" He panicked and started running away. "Pumbaa!" Timon yelled, running after him.

The quartet looked on. "You can never forget your true buddies," Sora stated. Alex looked at him, then shifted his eyes to the ground in front of him. _Who are my true buddies?_ He looked once again at the turtle, lion, and pelican beside him... and grinned. _Do I even have to ask?_ Alex started laughing, leaving the others with confused looks.

* * *

_Meanwhile, on a world far away from the Pride Lands..._

Kairi stood on the beach, staring at the island that she, Riku, and Sora had played on together not too long ago. "Maybe..." she reasoned, "waiting isn't good enough."

"My thoughts exactly!" a voice echoed onto the beach. "If you have a dream, don't wait. Act." A dark portal appeared, and a red-headed man in a black cloak stepped out of it. "One of life's little rules. Got it memorized?"

"Who are you?" Kairi asked the man, clearly confused by all of this. "Axel," the stranger replied. "I happen to be an acquaintance of Sora's." Axel paused, and offered his hand to her. "Why don't we go see him?"

"...Sora?" Kairi slowly repeated in disbelief. She started to think about it, but some barking interrupted her thoughts. A dog called Pluto ran up to her and spun around, wagging his tail. Out of nowhere, a few Dusks appeared and surrounded the two of them. Pluto growled at the enemies.

A whistle sounded out from behind them. Kairi turned around and saw another dark portal being formed. In response to the familiar whistle, Pluto ran over to the portal and barked at Kairi, as if trying to indicate something.

"We've got something in common, Kairi," Axel insisted, sounding a bit desperate. "You and I both miss someone we care about. Hey... I feel like we're friends already." The Dusks started closing in on Kairi.

Kairi ran away from Axel and the Dusks. "You're not acting very friendly!" The two of them ran through the portal.

* * *

Kairi looked at the space around them. It was a mix of colors, with the Nobodies' emblem all over the place. But Kairi didn't quite recognize that. "Hey, what is this place?"

Another whistle was heard. Both of them looked in the direction of the source. There was a bright portal ahead. Pluto immediately ran through. Kairi quickly followed him, but turned around at the last second to see another man in a black coat. "Huh?" she mumbled as the portal closed behind her.

* * *

"You okay?" a boy's voice asked her. Kairi groaned as she got up off the floor. She looked at the source of the voice. "What...?"

Hayner, Pence, Olette, and Pluto were looking at her. "You and that dog came flying out of a hole in the wall," Pence explained. "You nearly gave us heart attacks!"

* * *

**Disclaimer: I only own Alexander, Joumae, and the Lockshield. Every other element of this story belongs to their respective owners. Namely Square-Enix and Disney.**


	19. Sinister Sundown

Chapter 19  
Sinister Sundown

_Hey, Joumae,_ Alex "said" to his counterpart as they left the Pride Lands, _you've been awfully quiet lately. _Alexander could almost feel a smirk appearing. **_Well, I figured I'd take a cue from you and take a nap._**

Alex sighed, wobbling as he got used to walking on two feet again. Suddenly, Chip's voice came out of nowhere. "Hey, guys!" the squeaky voice declared. "Take a look at this!" Everyone looked at the spot Chip indicated on the world map. "Twilight Town!" Dale exclaimed. "It's back!"

A thought crossed Alex's mind when he saw the world. He remembered that something important was going to happen now... something at Twilight Town...

His eyes widened as it struck him. "To Twilight Town! Full speed ahead!" he screamed. Everyone was confused by the outburst, but they quickly obliged.

* * *

The quartet ran into the Tram Common and looked around. Alex still seemed frantic about something, and the others will still confused. Suddenly, they saw Vivi run by. "H-Help! The sandlot! It's Seifer! Somebody please help us!" 

Sora watched Vivi for a moment, then turned to his comrades. "Sounds like we've got trouble!"

Alex panicked. "But... I... er..." In the midst of his confusion, he worked out an idea. "You guys go check on the sandlot! I need to go take care of something!" With that, Alexander quickly ran back up to the Station Heights. Sora, Donald, and Goofy raced to the sandlot.

In the sandlot, a few Dusks danced around Seifer, Rai, and Fuu. The three of them were fairly beaten, and Seifer struggled to get up. Sora stepped in with his Keyblade. "We'll take it from here!"

* * *

Back in the usual spot, Hayner, Pence, Olette, and the dog Pluto were listening to Kairi's account of the recent events. "What a romantic story!" Olette remarked as Kairi wrapped up her tale. 

"If you stick around, Sora's bound to show up," Pence reasoned, trying to comfort Kairi.

"Yeah, he and Alexander said they're coming back," Hayner added confidently.

"Alexander?" Kairi repeated. Before anyone could answer, a voice echoed through the usual spot. "What took you so long, Kairi?" A dark portal appeared at the side of the room, and Axel stepped out. "Somehow I just knew you'd be here. I tell ya, Kairi, you've got a lot of guts, jumping right into the darkness like that."

Axel slowly walked forward. Hayner ran toward him, ready to throw a punch, but Axel merely pushed the boy aside, sending him to the floor. Pence did the same, ending up with similar results. Olette could only watch in worry as Axel slowly made his way toward Kairi.

"Stay away from her!"

Everyone looked at the entrance, where Alex had rushed through. He brandished the Lockshield and stood between Axel and Kairi.

Everyone was shocked. "Alex!" Hayner shouted, getting off the floor. "You!" Axel exclaimed, his eyes widening in recognition. Kairi looked on in surprise. "So you're...?"

"Hayner! Olette!" Alex ordered. "Take Kairi up to the station! Pence, go to the sandlot and tell Sora that we'll be waiting there! I'll take care of this guy!"

Olette nodded and grabbed Kairi's hand. "Let's go." The two girls hurried out of the usual spot, followed by Hayner. Pence ran out as well after a moment.

Alex and Axel faced each other. "You should know better than to interfere this much, Alexander," Axel scolded him, summoning his chakrams out of fire.

Alex grunted. "Axel. The Organization's number VIII. The Flurry of Dancing Flames." He grinned as he got into a fighting stance. "I haven't gotten to say something like that in a long while."

* * *

Sora, Donald, and Goofy had taken out all of the Nobodies. "Impressive," a man's voice commented. The trio turned to find an Organization member facing them. "By the way," the Nobody added, "have you seen a man named Axel? I expect he's here somewhere." 

"Like I care," the Keyblade Master retorted. As the Organization member resumed speaking, Sora got into a fighting stance. "You see, Axel's no longer acting in our best interest," the Nobody explained.

"Is he with the Organization, too?" Goofy asked him. "Yes," the man replied, his voice devoid of an emotion that would've probably been annoyance.

"You havin' a fight?" Donald wondered. "Not a very organized Organization..." Sora teased.

The Organization member pointed at Sora. "Don't let your guard down," he advised. "Axel will stop at nothing to turn you into a Heartless."

Sora didn't look convinced. "Gee, thanks for looking out for us, mister. But I'm sure we can take care of ourselves just fine."

"Glad to hear it," the Nobody remarked. "Axel aside, it would break our hearts to hear something happened to you." Donald was surprised by the remark. "Hearts? You don't have any hearts!"

"True, we don't have hearts." Saïx lifted his hood, revealing his face to the trio. "But we remember what it was like. That's what makes us special."

"Whaddya mean?" Goofy queried as Saïx opened a huge dark portal behind him. "We know very well how to injure a heart," Saïx replied. "Sora, you just keep on fighting those Heartless."

Sora whispered to Donald, "Let's jump in after him!" Donald was less than enthusiastic. "How come?" Sora shook his head slightly. "I'm not sure, but maybe he'll lead us to the Organization's world."

Saïx realized their intent. "Don't be reckless. Do you want to end up like Riku?" Sora was caught off guard by this. "What?"

Using the bought time, Saïx stepped back into the portal. "Hey, wait!" Sora yelled as the portal dissipated, leaving the trio by themselves again. Sora stood there in deep thought. "What did he mean, end up like Riku?"

"Hey, how 'bout you get out of my town now?" Seifer demanded from the other end of the sandlot, standing between the rest of his Committee. "You've caused enough trouble."

Sora didn't hear him. "Riku..." Donald turned to speak in his stead. "Have it your way! C'mon, guys."

Seifer got an idea. "Hold it!" Donald was quickly irritated. "Make up your mind!" the duck exclaimed.

Seifer smirked. "If I were you, I would go fight Alexander. If you can beat him, you'd be the strongest guy in Twilight Town." Sora looked a little confused as Seifer, Fuu, and Rai passed by them and left the sandlot. Pence came up behind them. "Oh! Sora!"

Sora tried to place him. They had only met once, as far as he remembered. "Um... Pence, right?"

Pence nodded and asked, "Do you know a girl named Kairi?" The trio did a take. "K-Kairi!? I sure do!" Sora agreed. Pence quickly said, "Then you'd better come to the station!"

* * *

The battle between Alexander and Axel had led them out of the usual spot and into the back alley. "So, Axel," Alex muttered as he parried one of the chakrams and swiped at Axel, who was quick to dodge the attack, "why are you so intent on kidnapping Kairi?" 

Axel threw some flames in Alex's direction. "Why don't you tell me? You're the Interference, after all!" he retorted. Alex quickly used Reflect. Axel, recognizing the spell, jumped back right before the spell shot the attack back.

Alex sighed in the pause of the battle. "I don't know, really. What I know is from what I saw in the game. The game never really showed your motive. Though..." he added, stepping to the side as Axel threw a chakram at him, "I doubt it's on Organization business."

Axel disappeared and reappeared behind Alexander to catch his chakram. "You got that right." He swiped at Alex with both weapons, forcing him to backflip out of the way. Hey, adrenaline allowed him to perform acrobatics he wouldn't have been able to do otherwise.

"Hmph. Makes me wonder..." Alex muttered as he regained his balance. He didn't attack. "Why did the Castle Oblivion crew try to betray your Superior and the rest of the Organization? Perhaps they suspected some conspiracy on the other side...?"

Axel snorted. "Shut up." He charged at Alex with his chakrams, and they exchanged a few blows until their positions were reversed as they faced each other again.

"Let me tell you something, Axel," Alexander declared. "When the rest of you are gone, Xemnas will not hesitate to take Kingdom Hearts for himself. I doubt he cares if any of you survive or not. Maybe you're just pawns in his little game. Perhaps Marluxia knew that... Perhaps Roxas knew that..."

He was really making Axel tick now. "Shut up!" His chakrams burst into flame, and he threw them both at Alexander. Alex wasn't so lucky that time; the flames singed his skin. While the magical clothes were fine, he was left with a couple of burns on the side. He knew better than to use Cure so early, though.

"You know what I think, Axel?" Alex asked him, wincing from the pain. "I think that it was Roxas's choice to fuse with Sora again. At that point, he had regained all of his memories, right? But he also had the memories of being with his friends. Perhaps that by experiencing the feelings he felt with Hayner, Pence, and Olette in that alternate Twilight Town... he realized that Organization XIII was the wrong way to go."

Axel was stunned by this. Alex stepped forward. "No game script, no forced decisions. Roxas could have decided not to make the choice he made. But he did, and I think he had a reason. Axel, you're his friend, right? I think Roxas still considers you a friend. What will you do now, if you're his friend?"

A long silence hung in the air between the two. Suddenly, a few Dusks appeared on both ends of the back alley, surrounding them. "Uh-oh," Axel muttered. He quickly disappeared into a dark portal. Alex rolled his eyes and faced the Dusks. "Sure, **you** get to make your escape..."

* * *

Pence, Sora, Donald, and Goofy ran to the station. There wasn't anybody else around yet. Hayner and Olette came running up the Station Heights. "He-ey!" Hayner shouted. Right behind them was... 

"Kairi!" Sora shouted, instantly recognizing his friend. Kairi noticed him too. "Sora!" They ran toward each other and hugged tightly.

A very tired Alexander came walking up the Station Heights. "Did I miss the mushy part?" he asked. Seeing Sora and Kairi, he quickly averted his eyes. "Guess not." The rest of them laughed.

Hayner noticed his condition. "You alright, Alex? Looks like you took a beating." Alex sighed and walked over to Hayner, Pence, Olette, Donald, and Goofy. "Not so much as a beating as a burning, really..." he remarked. "That Axel's a tough guy for a fire user."

Donald and Goofy did a take. "Axel?" they repeated in unison. Alex glanced at them. "Which reminds me," he muttered, changing the subject, "what happened at the sandlot, exactly?"

Donald and Goofy described the event at the sandlot over the next few minutes. About how they ended up saving Seifer from the Nobodies, and the blue-haired Organization member's warning about Axel.

If Alex had a beard, he would've been stroking it. "So Axel really is a traitor by now... Wait, a blue-haired Nobody?" Alex repeated. Goofy nodded to confirm it.

Alex groaned. "Not Saïx again..." Hayner and the others murmured their mutual agreement. Donald raised an eyebrow at this. "You guys know about the Organization?"

Pence shrugged. "How can we not know about them? They caused a lot of trouble during the last five days that Alex was with us." Goofy looked at Alex again. "You were here for five days?" he repeated.

"Six," Alex corrected him. "I was living here for six days before you guys woke up. In that time, I explained to Hayner and the guys about the Nobodies and the game and such..." Sora and Kairi walked over to them. **_Aw, how sweet..._** Joumae grumbled, **_Bleah._**

Sora did a take and looked around, as if he had heard something. "Did... you say something, Alex?" he asked hesitantly. This confused everybody.

Alex shook his head slowly. "No, but Joumae said something..." Just as the idea clicked in his mind, a couple of Samurai Nobodies appeared out of nowhere. The Nobodies drew their swords and held them in front of the others, separating Sora and Alex from them. "Sora!" Donald shouted.

Sora ran back to them, but stopped as the space around them started to warp. He turned back and saw a portal appear, and a guy in a black hood step out of it. Alex looked and saw... "Joumae?" he blurted, seeing his counterpart in the flesh next to the Organization member. Joumae smirked and summoned his Lockshield. The Oblivion Keyblade appeared in the black hooded guy's hand. Sora muttered, "A Keyblade?"

Sora and Alex summoned their respective weapons. Just in time too, as it was, because the Organization member and Joumae chose that moment to charge. The weapons clashed, and they were at a standstill. A bright flash happened around the four of them.

* * *

They stood at the Station of Awakening once more. Sora and the unknown guy charged at each other again. This time the Organization member wielded the Oathkeeper Keyblade as well. Their weapons clashed. "Wh-who are you?" Sora demanded. "Someone from the dark," the Nobody replied. They pushed each other back. 

In another spot on the stained glass platform, Alex and Joumae were struggling against each other's blades. "Didn't we already do this?" Alex muttered, groaning under the stress.

Joumae grinned. "Show me what you got. You must have improved, right?" They jumped back. Sora and Alex stood next to each other, and the Nobody and Joumae stood by each other as well.

Sora stared at the Nobody. "You can't be Riku?" The Organization member stood up. "Riku? ...I defeated a Riku once." Alex gasped. Then this was, indeed...

Sora was enraged. "You _what_?!" Alex glared at Joumae, finally realizing what exactly was happening. "Why are you and Roxas fighting against us, Joumae?"

Sora did a take at the Nobody before him, and Alex's copy. "That's Joumae?" Sora asked, somewhat skeptical. Joumae still retained his smirk and replied to Alex, "You know the rule. Beat your opponent and I'll tell you!"

Roxas got into a fighting stance. "Tell me... Tell me why he picked you!" He ran toward Sora, dragging both Keyblades and making sparks as he did so. When he reached Sora, he picked them up and slashed down with the Oblivion, which Sora dodged. Sora blocked a second attack from the Oblivion, and pinned Roxas by forcing the Oathkeeper down under his own Keyblade. Roxas got out of that and jumped up and over Sora.

Alex was watching all this happening, and not what his opponent was doing. "Pay attention!" Joumae yelled as he attacked with his Lockshield, the Kingdom Copy. Alex parried the blow and stepped back, ready this time. Joumae ran toward him, and sweeped Alex off his feet with his Lockshield. Alex, using the strength he'd gained on this journey, stood up on his hands and spun around, his feet nearly caving in Joumae's face. Joumae blocked the counterattack with his shield and jumped back, giving Alex just enough time to get onto his feet again.

Roxas jumped toward Sora again to attack, but Sora jumped over Roxas's attack. When Sora was right over him, Roxas slashed at Sora with both of his Keyblades. Sora blocked the attack, but was sent even higher into the air. Roxas grunted and jumped high up to where Sora was. Sora flipped back in the air and blocked both of Roxas's Keyblades, and Roxas pushed him down to the platform again. Roxas looked down at where Sora stood, and the old portraits of Goofy, Donald, Riku, and Kairi that were in the design around him. "I see. That's why." He fell back to the platform and slashed at Sora, who jumped back.

Alex rushed toward Joumae. He tried to spin around and bash Joumae with the momentum. Joumae ducked under the attack and tried to uppercut Alexander. Alex brought his Lockshield in front of the attack and was sent up into the air. Alex recovered in the air and brought his shield down, with the force of gravity on his side. Joumae jumped out of the way of the strike.

Roxas charged again, using both his Keyblades to attack. Sora dodged three attacks, jumping back, and stood in a defensive stance as Roxas kept bashing his Keyblades on Sora's.

Alex charged forward to attack Joumae again. He thrust his Lockshield edge first in Joumae's direction.

After a few seconds of bashing, Sora's foot twisted under the pressure, and he lost his balance. Roxas knocked away Sora's Keyblade, which landed a few feet away.

Joumae grabbed Alex's Lockshield, pulled it away from his hand, and threw it aside. Both Sora and Alex started a mad dash for their weapons, but they were secured by the other's opponent. Joumae had his foot firmly planted onto Sora's Keyblade, and his Lockshield was resting menacingly over Alex's neck. Roxas held one Keyblade over Alex's Lockshield, and the other Keyblade was pointing at Sora.

Alex and Sora glanced at each other. They nodded slightly, and stretched a hand forth toward the other's weapon. The Keyblade and the Lockshield disappeared from their opponent's capture. "What?" Roxas exclaimed. Alex held the Keyblade and slashed with all his might through Joumae. Sora did likewise, slashing down on Roxas with the Lockshield.

After a moment, Roxas dropped his Keyblades, which disappeared. Joumae's Lockshield dissipated in an inky black smoke. Sora and Alex dismissed their weapons. Roxas weakly walked by Sora and stumbled to his knees, his hood falling back and revealing his head. Joumae started to chuckle. "Man, I guess I underestimated the two of you together."

Roxas slowly stood up and opened his eyes. Looking back to Sora, he said, "You make a good other."

* * *

"You make a good other," Sora slowly repeated. Alex blinked a few times and rubbed his eyes. "Okay, that was just plain weird." They were back in Twilight Town, in the very same place they had been. Everyone was there, but no Nobodies. 

Donald and Goofy approached them, and the others just watched in silence. "Are you okay?" Donald asked them. Sora was confused. "What... just happened?"

Goofy was as confused as the rest of them. "Gawrsh, I dunno. You two just disappeared. Then me and Donald had to fight some Nobodies."

"Oh," Sora muttered. "He said... he defeated Riku..." Donald was even more confused. "Who said that?" Sora looked back at them. "That guy. In the black coat."

Donald stepped forward. "But nobody could defeat Riku," he insisted. Alex sighed. "Well, not the second time, anyway..." Sora stared at him. "What?"

Goofy looked at Alex's hand. "Uh, Alex... why is there a Keyblade in your hand?"

Alex looked down, and saw that the Oathkeeper Keyblade was in his hand. "What is this doing here?" Alex mumbled, more intrigued than surprised. **_Give it to Kairi,_** a voice ordered in his head. But it didn't sound like Joumae. _Joumae?_ Alex thought. **_You heard him,_** Joumae's scolding voice grumbled, **_give it to Kairi!_** Alex groaned. That was Joumae. But...

"...Who was that?" Sora finished for him. It seemed he had heard Joumae and the new voice as well. Alex and Sora glanced at each other. Then Alex walked over to Kairi. "Uh... I guess this is yours."

Kairi, still being confused, hesitantly took the Keyblade. A light flashed as her hand made contact with the Keyblade. She waved it around a little, getting used to its weight. "What's going on?" she asked finally.

All eyes turned to Alexander. He grinned sheepishly as he realized there was going to be a huge explanation coming up. "Let's go to my apartment. I need a half hour or so to sort this out, 'cause I don't completely understand it myself."

* * *

Alex finally opened the door to his bedroom and stepped out into the small living room, where Sora, Donald, Goofy, Kairi, Hayner, Pence, and Olette were waiting. "Okay..." Alex mumbled, trying to get his bearings. "Okay... okay..." 

"Will you just get on with it?!" Hayner shouted. Alex flinched. "Okay... Um, it seems that Roxas, Sora's Nobody, and my dark counterpart, Joumae, dragged us to the Station of Awakening for a fight. We had completely disappeared during the fight, and it turns out that we were the only ones that could see them in the first place."

Alex looked at Kairi. "Roxas left me a Keyblade for you to use, Kairi. The Oathkeeper keychain, to be exact, but I won't get into that. Since it's more than likely that you're going to be traveling with us, you'll need to be able to fight." Kairi nodded, looking a bit more determined now.

Alex sighed and glanced at Sora. This was the complicated part. "Just like Joumae is in my head, Sora... Roxas is now a part of you, being fully awakened now. It seems that you can talk to him just as I can talk to Joumae, and that through one, we can hear the other. Basically, I can hear Roxas talk, and you can hear Joumae."

He then proceeded to explain about Joumae to Hayner, Pence, and Olette, who had not known about that detail. After that, he explained the Awakening to Donald and Goofy, who had no idea what they were talking about in that regard either. It was a long explanation, not worth putting it all into print.

* * *

Sora walked out of Alex's apartment, stretching. "Man, I've never had an explanation go that long before." Donald rolled his eyes. "I noticed. You fell asleep halfway, Sora." Sora glared accusingly at Donald. "Don't say you didn't!" he retorted. Donald averted his eyes from the others, who were chuckling at the truth. 

Alex sighed. _Good grief, that was long indeed._ Joumae was thoroughly annoyed by now. **_Can we just go now? We still have another _half_ of a journey to do here!_**

Alex heard Roxas say, **_Calm down. We just got through a lot of information, and we need a little time to recover. _**Alex was suddenly glad there was someone to counter Joumae's sarcasm. Sora wasn't so optimistic, since now he had to listen to said sarcasm.

"Look, lemme just get it out right now," Sora muttered to Alex. "Let's keep this kind of chatter to a minimum. It could get confusing after a few minutes." Alex nodded a silent agreement.

On the way out onto Market Street, Alex pulled out the blue crystal from his pocket. Sora, on instinct, pulled out the blue crystal from the pouch in his pocket. Roxas mumbled in surprise, **_So _that's_ where that went..._**

Suddenly, Alex's crystal began to glow with a familiar light. It floated up into the air. Sora pulled out his Keyblade, and a bright flash filled up the whole area as he opened yet another gate. Hayner and the others walked over to them. "Wh-What just happened?" Pence asked. "A new road is open," Sora explained. "And Riku is still waiting somewhere along it."

"You'd better hurry, then," Olette remarked. "You comin' back?" Hayner asked. Sora nodded. "Promise!"

* * *

**Disclaimer: I only own Alexander, Joumae, and the Lockshield. Every other element of this story belongs to their respective owners. Namely Square-Enix and Disney.**


	20. Old Friends, Old Rivals

Chapter 20  
Old Friends, Old Rivals

"I just thought of something," Alexander murmured. Donald looked at him inquisitively. "What would that be?"

Alex chuckled. "Well... with Kairi here, we're no longer a quartet." He paused. "I think the term for a group of five is a... quintet."

Kairi took a seat in the gummi ship. She had rarely ever gone between worlds before, so she was looking around in admiration. The others, having done this many times before, were oblivious. Everyone, however, was drawn to the sight of Hollow Bastion in front of them. The world was surrounded by a black and blue aura.

"Oh no!" Chip shouted. "Hollow Bastion! It's covered in darkness!" Dale nodded. "You're right, Chipper! Sora, let's get going!" Without another word, Sora started steering the ship toward Hollow Bastion. Alex had a big grin on his face.

* * *

As soon as the quintet disembarked, they found a group of Soldier Heartless running by. They all gasped, and the Heartless promptly disappeared moments afterward. "Do you think..." Sora mumbled. "Looks like there's more Heartless now," Goofy agreed.

Soon after that statement, a group of Dusks floated by and out of sight. Kairi looked on in confusion. "Just... what are those things?" she asked. Alex sighed. "I guess we had never really explained to you... Nobodies are creatures that are born when a strong-hearted person becomes a Heartless."

Kairi nodded. After a moment, Sora decided, "Let's go check in with everyone."

Alex concurred. "I think they're at Merlin's." They walked on through the marketplace.

Near the stairs that led down to the Borough, they found a familiar person leaning on the wall. "Oh, Cloud!" Sora exclaimed. Cloud looked up slightly. He glanced at Kairi and Alexander, then closed his eyes again.

"Whatcha doing?" Donald asked him. "I'll get him," Cloud muttered, not really listening to them. "This time we settle it. Me, and the one who embodies all the darkness in me."

Kairi looked at Alex. "Who's this?" Alex shrugged and whispered back, "A soldier whom Sora met at Olympus Coliseum." Donald sighed. "I thought you looked kinda different, Cloud."

"If I do," Cloud replied, "it's his fault." Sora was confused. "Whose?"

"Sephiroth. Tell me if you see him," Cloud grumbled. Sora nodded, and said, "Okay. What's he look like?" Cloud kept his indifferent expression. "Silver hair. Carries a long sword."

Alex chuckled nervously, drawing the attention of the others. To him, that description didn't do Sephiroth justice. Cloud glared at Alex. "You know him?" Alex sighed. "I've... heard of him. If we see him, I'll recognize him for sure." Sora turned to leave. "Be seeing you, Cloud."

"Be careful," Cloud advised, getting off the wall. "He messes with your head, makes you think darkness is the only way." The quintet remained silent.

"Is something wrong?" Everyone turned to see Aerith. "Uhh..." Sora mumbled.

Cloud started to walk away, and Aerith followed. Cloud turned to her. "It's nothing." Aerith leaned in, a curious air about her. "I don't want you involved," Cloud insisted. Aerith considered that remark. "You mean you don't want me there when you go away again?"

"I just..." Cloud started. He paused, and said, "Listen, even if I go far away, I'll come back." Aerith didn't seem convinced. "Do you mean it?" Cloud looked away. "Yeah."

"See?" Aerith pointed out. "You don't look so sure." She paused. "Well, okay, I understand. Go – get things settled." This caught Cloud off guard. Apparently, he had been expecting more of an argument. "Huh?"

"No matter how far away you are..." Aerith stated, "once you find your light... I'm sure it will lead you back here again. Right?" Cloud thought about it for a moment. "I suppose." Aerith nodded. "So I'll stay here... and I'll cheer for you... Okay, Cloud?"

"Okay," Cloud confirmed. He started walking down the stairs. Sora and the others approached her. Alex groaned. "Eesh, what's his damage?" he grumbled.

"Wonder if he'll be okay," Aerith commented, who fortunately hadn't heard Alex's remark. "He'll be fine," Sora assured her. "I'm sure there's some light in him somewhere."

Aerith smiled. "You're right." She turned to them and noticed Kairi. "Oh! You're... Kairi, right?" Kairi nodded. The Final Fantasy gang had met her at Traverse Town in the first game, so they recognized her.

Alex nodded. "Anyway, we'd better head over to Merlin's and see what's going on." They walked down to the Borough.

* * *

The quintet walked into Merlin's house. Cid was typing furiously on his computer as usual, and Yuffie was watching him. They turned around to face them. "Good timing," Cid remarked. "Guess what?" Yuffie asked them.

Alex grinned. "You found Ansem's computer." Yuffie grinned back. "That's right! So get on over there. Leon's in Ansem's study, which is just past the castle postern." Yuffie looked at Kairi. "Ah, Kairi! It's been a while!"

Kairi nodded again. Sora looked excited. "Maybe that computer can tell us where Riku is." Goofy spoke up. "Yeah, and maybe about the Heartless and Organization XIII!"

Alex shrugged. "Can't hurt _too_ much to try." Everyone gave him a funny look. "What?" he asked, feigning innocence yet again.

* * *

They walked into the bailey. As they got halfway through the area, a girl's voice asked, "Excuse me, are you with the Restoration Committee?" Everyone looked back and didn't see anyone there at first. Then three small girls floated up into the air in front of them. Alex was taken aback. He hadn't remembered this part.

"What's Leon's gang up to?" Yuna asked them. Sora stepped forward. "They've got stuff to do over by the castle postern." Yuna turned to her companions, Rikku and Paine. "Scoop!"

"Huh?" Kairi mumbled. "Let's report," Paine suggested, ignoring them. "To who?" Donald asked them. Yuna faced them again. "Our leader, of course!"

Rikku nodded. "Yeah, you know, Malefi–" Her voice was cut off as Paine shut her mouth forcefully. The quintet tried to listen to the muffled exclamations that followed, but gave up. Paine shook her head at the quintet. "Don't mind her. I assure you, we come in peace." Rikku nodded. "You're kidding..." Yuna mumbled.

Paine let go of Rikku. "Problem? Okay, fine. You do the talking." She disappeared in a flash of light. Yuna turned back to them and bowed hastily. "So sorry about this!" She also disappeared, followed by Rikku.

Sora, Donald, Goofy and Kairi gave Alex a funny look. Alex shrugged. "Don't worry. They can't cause any harm."

* * *

The five of them looked up at the castle above them as they approached the postern. Sora looked around. "Leon?" he called out. "Over here!" a voice answered. It was Aerith on the other side of the postern. The five of them approached her. "Where's Leon?" Sora asked.

"He's in Ansem's study. The King is with him," Aerith replied. Donald shouted, "We'll get to see the King!" Goofy was also excited. "Oh, boy!"

As the two of them started chatting, Sora asked, "Is Riku with them?" Aerith shook her head. Kairi and Sora sighed. "Well," Sora mumbled, "we might as well go check it out anyway." Alex looked at the path behind Aerith. "The study is past those hallways, right?"

As they entered those hallways, there was a skittering noise behind them. Sora and the others looked around, but saw nothing. Alex looked up and saw something blue crawl along the ceiling and disappear from view.

* * *

The study was more of a mess than Alexander had observed in the game. There were books everywhere, boards with diagrams and notes in various places, and there were other broken and cluttered objects all over the place. The only things that were in order were the chair at the desk and the portrait of Ansem at the side of the room.

"Ansem..." Sora muttered, staring at the portrait. The five of them approached it. "Gawrsh, I guess this must be his room," Goofy reasoned. Kairi looked at the surroundings, somewhat familiar with them. Hollow Bastion had been her homeworld, after all.

"Where's the King?" Donald asked. Kairi looked confused. "The King?" Donald hastily explained in a condescending tone, "King Mickey!"

Sora looked around the study. "Hello?" he called out. Leon and the King were nowhere in sight. Alex looked at the portrait of Ansem again. He sighed, deciding that there was something that needed to be explained. "Sora..."

"Hey, you!"

Sora flinched and looked at the source of the voice. It was a woman, whom Alexander recognized as Tifa. She looked around at the study. "I'm looking for somebody," she explained. "Have any of you seen a guy with spiky hair?"

Sora pulled on one of the spikes of his hair. Alex patted his head instinctively, even though he knew what she was talking about. Tifa giggled. "Spikier." Kairi got an idea. "You mean... Cloud?"

Everyone stared at her. "...Yes!" Tifa confirmed. "Do you know where he is?"

The quintet shook their heads. Tifa sighed. "I'll just take a look around." And so she did. She checked everything; the walls, the desks, the bookshelves... Especially one section of the wall between two of the bookshelves. She eventually kicked it with remarkable strength, making the room shake and scaring the five of them.

Tifa gave up. "Sorry to bother you." The four guys stood at attention. "No bother, ma'am!" Tifa walked out of the study and closed the door behind her. "So you made it," another voice behind them remarked. They turned back to find Leon leaning against the wall that Tifa had been investigating.

"Leon!" Sora shouted. Leon got off the wall and nodded. They approached him. Leon looked at Kairi and said, "Oh, you're with them too." Kairi acknowledged the recognition. Sora looked around again. "Where's the King?"

Leon shushed them. "You'll meet him soon enough." This somewhat annoyed the trio. "Maybe this will hold you over," Leon suggested. He placed a hand on the wall. A rectangular light flashed around Leon's hand, and a whole section of the wall disappeared in a flash of light, revealing a futuristic-looking hallway. All five of them did a take. "Ansem's computer room..." Alex mumbled.

* * *

Sora ran to the computer terminal. "This is it!" he proclaimed excitedly. Alex ran over to him and restrained him from pressing random buttons. "Sora! Don't break it!" Sora stepped back from the keyboard hesitantly.

Alex sighed. "You apparently aren't very computer savvy." Sora shrugged and sighed. "Guess I might've gotten carried away," he admitted. Goofy looked up. "Woah!" he exclaimed. Everyone looked up.

The small blue alien Stitch looked down on them, as startled as the rest of them. He lost his grip and landed on the keyboard hard. Stitch stared at the five of them. Kairi gasped, obviously not used to such a sight. Donald shouted, "Get offa there!" He jumped onto the keyboard. Stitch jumped out of the way, onto Donald's head, and onto the floor. Donald growled angrily and turned in place to face the annoyance, taking a few more steps on the keyboard and hitting more keys.

Suddenly, a siren sounded out, startling all of them. "Attention current user," a deep voice addressed them from the terminal. "This is a warning. Further misuse of this terminal will result in immediate defensive action."

"Who's there?" Sora asked the voice. "I am the Master Control Program," it replied. "I oversee this system." Sora looked around for the source. "Where are you?"

Donald took a hesitant step, accidentally hitting more keys. Another siren started blaring. "_Donald_!" Sora, Goofy, Alex, Kairi, and Leon yelled simultaneously.

"I'm sorry..." Donald protested. "Decision gate reached," the Master Control Program announced. "You are now under arrest."

"Arrest?" Sora repeated in disbelief. Goofy walked over to Donald and tried to pick him up. Kairi looked around, somewhat frightened. "What's going to happen now?" Alex and Leon looked at the device in the back of the computer room, which was starting to glow with a bright light. Leon shouted, "Run!"

Everyone looked at Leon, then the device. The device shot beams of light at the quintet, freezing them in place. Then the beams started to make them disappear block by block until they were completely in the machine.

**To be continued...**

* * *

**Disclaimer: I only own Alexander, Joumae, and the Lockshield. Every other element of this story belongs to their respective owners. Namely Square-Enix and Disney.**


	21. Space Paranoids

Chapter 21  
Space Paranoids

Alex slowly felt the feeling return to his body. He groaned as he got up, momentarily oblivious to the surroundings. Then he saw it. All around them was a blue blocky space, with some red trim in areas. There were circuitry lines all over the place. Looking over himself, he found that his costume had changed to some kinda blue jumpsuit, complete with helmet, and it had a lighter blue circuitry design.

Alex looked around, trying to see if anyone else was nearby. Sora and Kairi were starting to get up behind him. "Kairi! Sora!" he shouted, running over to them. Sora and Kairi also noticed the changes. As Sora looked over himself, they heard a voice next to them. "Sora!"

It was Donald, and Goofy was beside him. They had their hands up, and were being escorted by a group of jittery Strafer Heartless. Sora looked surprised by their helplessness. "Go on, show 'em who's boss!"

As Sora approached the escort, a cylindrical light flashed beside them, and a man in a red jumpsuit appeared next to the three of them. Kairi looked up at him. "Who are you?" she asked.

"I am Commander Sark," the man replied. Sora didn't look very intimidated. "A Heartless commander?"

Sark grunted at Sora's ignorance. "Observe." He stretched forth a hand toward Donald and Goofy, and a red light began to shine from it. Donald and Goofy wailed as they were shocked by their suits.

Alex was startled, even though he had seen this before. "Okay, you're the boss! We get it." The red light faded, and Sark smirked as he glanced back at Alex, Sora, and Kairi.

* * *

Alexander looked outside of the little window of the pit cell in which the quintet had been thrown into. It seemed they were in the middle of a canyon, which looked rather lifeless for a world made of...

"Man, what kind of world is this, anyway?" Sora wondered aloud, breaking Alex's train of thought. Donald and Goofy looked back and shook their heads, not having a clue. Kairi looked around the pit cell, as if looking for some clue as to what was happening. They were about to give Alex the usual questioning look when someone else answered their question for them.

"You're inside a mainframe computer system," a man's voice replied from the other side of the pit cell. Everyone turned to the man, who was leaning against a computer terminal. This guy was wearing a blue jumpsuit, similar to Sark's. Sora, along with the other three, were confused. "A what system?"

"A computer system – for processing data," the man insisted. "This system is a copy of one created by a corporation called ENCOM. The original program was destroyed." The man stood up. "But this program was acquired by another User," he continued. "The new User updated and customized the programs, renaming the system 'Hollow Bastion OS.'" He approached the quintet as he spoke. "He used the system for town maintenance, and to advance his private research."

"My name is Tron," the man said, introducing himself. "I'm a security program. But now I'm under arrest, same as you."

Sora looked back to the others, with a confused expression on his face. "Did you guys get any of that?" Alex chuckled. "I did." He stepped forward. "You'll have to excuse them, Tron," he replied. "They aren't exactly knowledgeable about computers. Most of what you said was completely lost on them." He spoke with an arrogant air about him, somewhat ticking the others off.

"In any case," Alexander continued, "I'm Alex." Getting the hint, everyone else introduced themselves. "I'm Sora."

"And I'm Donald."  
"I'm Kairi."  
"Nice to meet'cha, Tron. I'm Goofy."

Tron sized them all up. "With that configuration, you must be Users." Sora still didn't get it. "Users?" Alex laughed. "Users is a term in this world that stands for people from the outside, like us."

Sora nodded and remained silent. Tron spoke up with even more good news, in the sarcastic sense. "You'd better get out of here quickly. Who knows what the MCP will do to you?"

Sora hesitantly asked, "MCP?"

"The Master Control Program," Tron replied. Kairi nodded. "That's the thing that arrested us, right?" Tron confirmed this. "It controls the whole system. If you idle here, you will be de-rezzed."

Now there was a piece of jargon that had a clear meaning. All of them jumped back in surprise. "De-rezzed?" Donald repeated in disbelief.

Sora looked worried. "So, how do we get outta here?" Tron thought for a moment. He walked over to the terminal he had been leaning on before. "This terminal could've gotten you back to the User world."

Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Kairi leaned in, waiting for Tron to finish. Alex held back a groan as Tron continued, "But the MCP cut the power 50 microcycles ago." Alex didn't even bother to try to convert microcycles into real time.

The five of them hung their heads, defeated. Tron kept hypothesizing. "If we could bring the energy core in the canyon online, we could power it back up. The problem is... we're stuck in this cell." He jabbed a thumb at the dark field covering the exit with an orange keyhole symbol flashing in the center. "We're not going anywhere unless we unlock the energy fields."

"Unlock?" Alex repeated, thinking. He looked at Sora, who had gotten a similar idea. Sora stretched forth his hand, and the Keyblade appeared. Before Alex let him do the honors, he had a question. Lowering his voice, he asked, "Sora, have you heard anything from Roxas at all?"

Sora shook his head. Alex sighed. "I haven't heard from Joumae either. I guess alternate personalities don't convert to data." Sora shrugged and walked over to the energy fields. After staring at it a moment, he whacked it with the Keyblade. A few dark clusters of data tumbled onto the floor. Sora picked them up, and they were absorbed by the Keyblade.

Sora whacked the energy fields a few more times, collecting more clusters. As soon as he felt he had gotten enough, he pointed his Keyblade at the flashing keyhole symbol. A bright flash occurred, and the energy field disappeared. Tron approached him. "Remarkable. You seem to have some unique functions."

Alex nodded. "Now let's get going." Kairi agreed. "We need to go find the energy core." They walked through the hall ahead, and arrived at a bright circular platform. When all six of them were on it, the platform sped toward the canyon. Alex looked down for a moment and shuddered, his fear of heights kicking in once more.

* * *

They arrived at the canyon area. Finally able to ignore the heights, Alex turned left and walked into a big room, with a huge structure in the middle, a circuitry design around it, and a bunch of junk lying around at the sides. Tron looked up at the structure. "This is the energy core." Alex walked around it, and saw that there were large red blocks jutting out from the top of the structure. There was a hole where another block should be.

Kairi turned to Tron. "How do we power this back up?" Tron pointed at the hole. "We need to find the part that will fit into that outlet." He indicated the pile of junk around them. "There should be something we can use in all of this junk." Indeed, almost all of it was blue blocks that bore a striking resemblance to what they needed. Only one of them was the real thing, though.

Almost as if on cue, the junk started to float and revolve around them. One flashed red for just a moment, but they soon lost it. Alex growled, frustrated by this turn of events, however expected it was. "Find the real part!" Everyone started bashing the groups of junk. The fakes were fragile and broke easily. But there was a lot of them, and they changed positions frequently. It took them about two minutes before they found the red block they were looking for.

Sora pointed his Keyblade at the block. Raising the blade, the block rose accordingly. When the block was level with the hole in the energy core, Sora swung his Keyblade forward, setting the block into place. The device in the center flashed with a bright light as the energy returned to the machine. The energy core sank into the ground, rotating as it did so. Once the flat top was even with the rest of the floor, the whole room lit up as the circuitry lines became bright with energy.

"Well, that's that," Goofy remarked. Tron nodded slightly and turned to the quintet. "Indeed. Now, can you do me a favor?"

Kairi smiled. "Of course!" Tron was shocked by the reaction. "You don't want to hear what it is first?" Sora grinned. "Hey, you helped us out. Now it's our turn!"

Tron shook his head. "You really are Users. Your actions are totally illogical." Donald gave Tron a funny look, but didn't comment. Tron turned to the lift they had come here on. "Let's hurry back to the pit cell."

Sora was confused again. "Where's that again?" Alex rolled his eyes as Tron explained, "The sector where we met." Sora nodded. "Roger!"

* * *

Tron was typing away on the terminal in the pit cell, trying to get the Research Lab function to work for the quintet. The five companions watched him do this. Sora finally asked, "So, what did you want us to do?"

Tron stood up and turned to them. "Find my User. He'll give you the password to access the DTD." Donald smiled. "You bet!" Sora was yet again confused. "So, um..."

"DTD is the name my User gave to the dataspace," Tron explained, sensing the question. "Copies of all the original system programs are stored there, along with anything that's sensitive or restricted."

Goofy looked excited. "Is there stuff about the Heartless, or Organization XIII?" Tron considered this. "Hmm... Most likely." He knelt back down in front of the terminal and resumed typing. "A number of my functions were appropriated when I last took on the MCP. That's why I need the password. If I can get inside the DTD, I can access my original backup program and restore all my functions."

He turned back to them, showing more determination than they had seen from him before. "Then, I'll be able to put this system back the way it was before the MCP took control and changed everything. The way it was supposed to be. A free system for you – the Users."

Something seemed to strike Goofy as odd. "Gee, Tron, ain't the MCP one of those programs, too? Do ya know who it was who made it?"

"Actually..." Tron seemed to hesitate. "I don't know." Kairi focused on the task at hand. "Okay, we'll just have to find your user and ask him. What's his name?"

Tron was surprised. "You mean you don't know?" He chuckled. "My User is the user of this system: Ansem the Wise."

Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Kairi jumped in surprise, making Alex jump in turn. "Ansem?" the first four shouted. They exchanged nervous glances.

Suddenly, the screen on the terminal started to crackle behind Tron, who immediately got to work again. "Looks like the MCP's on to us. I'll keep this terminal up and running. You better exit the system, now!"

Sora was at a loss for words. "Sure... But Tron... Ansem is..."

"We'll get ya the password!" Donald cut in. Tron finished up. "Okay, you're good to go. Hurry!" The quintet hesitantly walked up to the terminal. Cylindrical beams of light enveloped them, and they disappeared.

* * *

A blue light shone forth from the machine, and the five forms of the quintet slowly appeared. They looked around, finding themselves back in Ansem's computer room. Alex sighed in relief, and the others starting cheering. "We did it!" Sora shouted.

**_About freakin' time!_** Joumae shouted, making Alex wince. **_What happened to you guys?_** Roxas asked them.

Leon walked over to them. "It's good to see you're all right. Where have you guys been?" Sora folded his arms. "Well, there's this, um, world inside the computer... where these... um, 'programs' live, and..." He continued to describe the world made of data, the MCP, and the password Tron needed to access the dataspace. Leon took all this info in. "Hmm... So we can't access that data without the password?"

Kairi nodded. "But Tron said that his User was Ansem." She left the rest unsaid. There wasn't any way to get the password from him. All at once, they turned to Alexander, who shrugged. "I don't quite remember the password exactly. It needs to be correct word for word, and I don't know it that well."

"Well, what do you know?" a familiar voice came from the side. It was Tifa. She looked around at the computer room. "A secret room! I guess I didn't look hard enough." Tifa nodded to herself. "I'll just take another look around."

The quintet watched her run back to Ansem's study and start wrecking it in her search. "She doesn't give up..." Sora remarked.

Donald stomped his foot on the ground. "And neither will we!" Everyone agreed to that, their determination renewed. "Yeah, we gotta get Tron that password!" Goofy exclaimed.

Tifa faced Ansem's portrait. The quintet stood behind her. Tifa stared at it for a few moments, then muttered, "Excuse me." She walked over to the huge portrait, lifted it by the corner (with hardly any show of effort at all, making Sora jump in surprise) and set it down beside her. The wall behind it had a jumble of doodles and notes, most of which seemed to be in Japanese. Tifa stared at the wall some more. She punched it hard, shaking some dust from the walls. She turned back to the others and sighed, then walked away.

Everyone stared at the wall. "What's this doodle?" Sora asked. There was a circle with a heart in it, surrounded by a halo of what looked like circuitry. There were several notes at the sides, with lines pointing to parts of the diagram. Those were in Japanese. And there were some mostly faded words in English above the whole things.

Donald started to read the words. "Hollow... Main... Security... Tron... Door to..." He fumbled with the last one. Alex stared at it. He then looked at a diagram at the other side of the room. The other diagram was some notes on the hearts of the world. It looked strangely similar.

Goofy turned to Sora. "Looks like a diagram or somethin'." Donald squinted at the last three words. "Door... to... darkness?" It struck Sora. "Oh!" he exclaimed, making the others jump. He walked closer to the diagram, and pointed at three letters. "D – T – D!"

"DTD!" the others proclaimed. Leon walked back into the room. "What's up?"

Sora pointed at the diagram. "Look at this! This must be the dataspace! The DTD. See? The Door to Darkness!" Leon looked at the doodle. "What do you know. But... that still leaves the password."

"Say, fellas, did somebody mention the Door to Darkness?"

Everyone turned to see the source of the new voice. Sora did a take. There was a familiar person in a black coat. He was short, and had two disproportionate round ears on top of his head.

"Your Majesty!" Sora, Donald, and Goofy exclaimed. Mickey quietly shushed them, and looked around nervously. He quickly shut the door behind him. The King had barely taken off his hood when Donald tackled him in a bear hug. Goofy ran over to them and picked both of them up, laughing in excitement. Sora was also excited. "Long time no see!"

"Shh!" Mickey shushed them again. "The Organization might be listening!" Alex rolled his eyes. Sora nodded, and Goofy put Donald and Mickey down. **_Who's this?_** Roxas asked Sora, who seemed to proceed to explain to Roxas about King Mickey.

Alexander waved to Mickey. "I'm sure we both know each other, though I don't think we've been properly introduced." Mickey nodded and replied, "I assume you're Alexander, the Interference." He looked at Kairi. "Oh! You're Sora's friend, Kairi, right?"

Kairi smiled at the King. "You're King Mickey, right?" The two of them shook hands. The King quickly looked around again, and muttered, "You mentioned the Door to Darkness?"

The five of them stood at attention. "Uh, yes, sir," Goofy replied. "Ya see, we're lookin' for the secret password." Mickey looked at little confused. "Password?" The quintet sighed inwardly.

"Oh, I guess you mean like a code," Mickey deduced finally. Leon chuckled. Mickey continued, "Well, the Door to Darkness can only be opened by the seven princesses. There's Snow White, Jasmine, and Belle..."

Alex cut him off there. "Haven't we been through that befo-" He stopped, realizing what he'd forgotten. Leon rolled his eyes. "Of course..." He started walking toward the computer room. Mickey watched Leon leave, then turned to the quintet again. "What're you tryin' to do?"

"With that password," Kairi replied, "we can get access to Ansem's research data."

Mickey became excited. "So that means you might be able to find out where he is!" Sora laughed. "Stop jokin' around, Your Majesty. We already defeated Ansem. You know that."

Mickey blinked, then folded his arms. "Looks like I've got a lot of explainin' to do." Alex groaned. "Join the club. So do I." Donald and Goofy stood at attention again. "We're listening, Your Majesty!" Donald shouted.

"Okay..." Sora replied, "but first, I've got a question..."

"Hey, isn't Tron waiting for you guys?" Leon asked them, cutting Sora off. The five of them looked between Leon and Mickey, trying to weigh the two important tasks. "Don't worry," Mickey assured them, "I'm not goin' anywhere. If those Heartless attack, I'll stand and fight with everybody here." Sora nodded in agreement. "Yeah... we will too."

Joumae, seeing a loophole, muttered, **_And if the Nobodies attack...? _**Alex sighed in relief. "That's good to hear. I imagine there'll be yet another big explanation for me to do when I get back."

"Then let's talk more later," Mickey decided. Donald was still enthusiastic. "That's a promise!" Mickey smiled. "I'll see ya when you get back. Oh, and while I'm here, let me give your clothes some new powers." Alex and Sora brightened up at this. "Really?" Alex asked in surprise.

"Thanks!" Sora exclaimed. Mickey smiled. "Just think of it as a 'thank you' gift for all you've done so far." Alex and Sora took the yellow spheres that Mickey held out. The orbs were absorbed by their clothes, and they flashes a bright golden color for a second. They both had Master Form.

* * *

Alex typed some commands into the computer. There was a program that activated the device to go to Space Paranoids. Right now, the only accessible place was the pit cell.

He hovered over the last key for a few moments, then pressed it and joined his companions. The device flashed again, and it sucked them all in block by block until they were completely converted into data again.

* * *

They appeared in the pit cell. It was just the same as they had left it... almost. Tron was nowhere in sight. And the terminal had a weird diagram on it. "Where's Tron?" Kairi asked no one in particular.

Goofy walked over to the terminal. "What's this thing right here?" Sora and Donald panicked. "Don't touch anything!" Donald cried out. Suddenly, light surrounded them, like they were about to be teleported again.

"Goofy!" Sora whined. Sora and Donald disappeared in a flash of light, followed by Kairi and Alexander. Goofy shouted, "I didn't do it!" before disappearing as well.

Alex looked around once they had materialized again. They were in the middle of a huge flat arena, with a proportionate grid beneath them. "I didn't touch nothin'!" Goofy insisted.

_"Welcome to the game grid,"_ Sark's voice echoed through the arena, startling them. "Game grid?" Sora repeated.

_"That's right,"_ Sark confirmed, _"you've been selected to play a few games. Lose, and you will be subject to immediate de-resolution. Win? Well..."_ Sark chuckled evilly, _"no one wins."_

"We're not gonna play your games!" Donald protested. _"You have no choice,"_ Sark insisted. Alex glared at the arena. "Well then, get on with it!"

A bright blue vehicle resembling a motorcycle appeared before Alexander. "A light cycle..." he muttered. He quickly got onto it, and the light cycle immediately accelerated as the game started. Several walls formed themselves out of nowhere, shaping the light cycle's course. Then some Magnum Loader Heartless came up beside him. One of them tried charging at him, but Alex threw the Lockshield at the Heartless. The Magnum Loader took the full force of the attack and was defeated.

A wall came up straight ahead of Alex, forcing him to make a sharp left turn. He wasn't used to riding this kind of vehicle at all. Before he could recover, another Magnum Loader attacked him. Alex remembered a command from the game, and flipped the light cycle sideways, forming a shield around himself which reflected the damage onto the now-defeated Heartless.

Alex made a sharp right turn, swearing that the angle of these turns were nearly ninety degrees. There was yet _another_ Magnum Loader approaching him, but Alex saw it coming. He summoned the Lockshield back to his hand and threw it at the Heartless. But the Magnum Loader made a shield and repelled the attack. Frustrated, Alex closed in on it, raised up the front of the light cycle, did a wheelie, and brought it down on top of the Heartless. The weight of the vehicle crushed the shield and destroyed the Magnum Loader.

Alex brought the light cycle to a stop. He saw a Devastator Heartless appear near the others. It charged an electrical sphere and fired it at Kairi. She quickly jumped out of the way, letting the attack hit the wall instead of her. The sphere exploded, making a huge crack in the wall that led all the way through. Sora wasn't one who would question how that was possible. "All right, it looks like we can escape through there!"

Trusting that the others could hold their own, Alexander revved up the vehicle again, and started speeding toward the exit. Unfortunately, a wall formed itself right in front of it, and Alex was forced to make a sharp left turn.

Alexander continued charging at the enemies that came up behind him, avoiding the walls, the pillars that appeared to become his obstacles, and everything between. Soon he was approaching the exit. Four Devastators appeared and shot electricity at him. Alex made a shield around himself again as he went through the crack in the wall. They had won finally.

* * *

They all reappeared back in the pit cell. Everyone sighed deeply, thankful that they had escaped. It had been a tiring ordeal for all of them.

Sora noticed something on the other side of the room. "Tron!" Sora ran over to the program as Tron got up. Tron stumbled and limped, like someone who had just had the energy sucked out of him. "I don't understand," he muttered weakly. "Why are you here?"

"We came to give you the password," Sora replied, as if that should have been obvious. Tron looked somewhat annoyed in his tired state. "Why didn't you just transmit the data?"

Donald gave Tron a confused look. "Transmit?" Tron almost fell over from exhaustion, but Sora caught him. "Hey, are you okay?" Kairi asked him. Tron got back to his feet again, using Sora's shoulders as support. "I'll be all right... once we access the DTD."

* * *

The dataspace room was at one end of the canyon path, past the energy core room. The room was enveloped by a green light. There were tall structures all around the platform they were on. There were three huge monitors around it as well. There seemed to be some kind of interface in front of the center monitor.

Tron approached the interface, and a keyboard appeared near his hands. "All right," he said wearily, "what's the password?" Goofy thought about it. "Aurora, Alice, Jasmine..." Donald continued. "Belle, Snow White, Cinderella..." They all looked at Sora, who glanced at Kairi and nodded. "Kairi," Sora finished.

Tron paused, and nodded back. "Kairi, got it." He typed the password into the computer. Some rumbling happened, and a siren blared. _"The dataspace will take some time to become active,"_ a generic voice overhead declared in a near-monotone. _"Please enjoy a game while you wait."_

"Oh, no!" Tron cried out. Sora was also in dismay. "Not another game!" Tron shook his head. "This isn't a game. This is the DTD's final security routine. Be on your guard!"

The three monitors suddenly had the Heartless emblem on them. The pathway to the door had disintegrated, and Strafer Heartless had appeared in front of all of the monitors. Kairi hesitantly summoned her Oathkeeper Keyblade while everyone else quickly brought out their weapons. Sora stood next to Kairi. "Don't worry," he assured her, "I'll help you out."

Kairi nodded, and charged at the Heartless, followed by Sora. Alex whacked a Strafer, knocking some clusters from it. Alex's eyes widened, remembering what all of them had to do. "Sora! We need to stop the monitors!" Alex continued beating up the Heartless until he felt he had gotten enough clusters. He yelled at the two Keyblade wielders, who apparently had also collected a sufficient amount of clusters, "Sora! Kairi! Freeze the monitors!"

Sora ran up to one and pointed his Keyblade at it. A bright flash happened, and the Heartless mark disappeared from the monitor. Kairi hesitantly did the same as Donald and Goofy kept the Heartless at bay. It took a little while longer, but the monitor was frozen as well. Alex jumped up, pointed his Lockshield at the center monitor, and turned his shield. Another bright flash occurred, and the "WARNING" sign disappeared.

With the DTD's final security routine taken care of, Tron walked back to the interface. He placed his hand on a panel, and light traveled up his arm and faded into his body. Tron looked at his hands, as if for the first time. He turned back to the quintet, excited. "I'm as good as new! All my functions have been restored!"

Donald cheered. "Oh, boy!" At that moment, another siren decided to go off. The interface started flashing red. A red bolt shot down and zapped the center of the circle they were standing in, sending them flying. If one of them had taken a direct hit, they would have been de-rezzed.

_"Finally,"_ the MCP's voice declared. _"I have full access to the DTD. My takeover of the system is now complete. I might have anticipated such a simple password."_ There was a pause. _"What's this? A emergency destruct program for the town. Let's see how it performs."_

Tron got the hint. "No!" He quickly turned to the panel and placed his hand on it. Light traveled back into the interface, and Tron did some quick typing. The MCP was surprised. _"Program! You changed the password!"_

Tron seemed satisfied. "There. That should buy us some time." Sora was still confused. "Tron! Tell us what's going on!"

"The MCP's loading a hostile program into the I/O tower," Tron explained hastily. Kairi was worried. "What do we do?" Tron didn't need to think too hard on that one. "We've got to protect the User town. Let's head to the tower!"

* * *

With the reactivation of the DTD, the lift to the I/O tower at the other end of the canyon path was working. They quickly got over to the tower and into the Communications Room. There was a small round platform in the back. A red and black energy was flowing between it and the hole in the top of the room. "This is usually where programs interface with the User world, right?" Alex asked Tron.

Tron nodded, and looked up. "It must be total chaos outside." Donald glanced at a terminal next to him. "It looks like there's going to be trouble **inside**, too..." They all looked at the terminal. There was a map, and a flashing dot was heading toward the center rapidly. There was an enemy inbound.

"Gawrsh, what do you think we should do, Alex?" Goofy whispered. Alex thought about it, then spoke up. "In this world, programs take physical manifestations, as you already know. Ones that we can beat up," he added with a grin. "If we can stop the hostile program from getting to this room, we can prevent the town from self-destructing, like the MCP intends."

The rest of them nodded. "Let's get going!" Sora shouted, running out to the I/O tower hallway. Tron followed close behind, with Donald, Goofy, Alex, and Kairi not too far behind either.

As soon as they reached the big round space of the hallway, a big... thing dropped down from the ceiling. It had a huge tank-like body, covered by sections of armored plating. It had two claws floating beside it, which rotated periodically. _"I'm disappointed in you, Program,"_ the MCP stated bluntly, as it always did. _"Why do you insist on allying with these selfish Users?"_

Tron looked determined. "Because I want to help them. Something written into my code commands me to do what is right." The MCP seemed skeptical. _"Really? And what command would that be?"_

He looked at Sora for help. "I can't really say for sure." Sora shrugged. "Friends... They help each other, that's all." Tron nodded. Sora looked up at the Hostile Program. "Uh oh – look out!"

The Hostile Program shot beams from its spikes. They hit the walls and spread, forming walls, and an arena for them to duke it out. Everyone got into a fighting stance. Alex got an idea. "Tron!" Tron nodded, kneeling down. A bunch of screens and data flowed in front of him. Solid code encircled them and grouped under them. "Running executable!" he declared. Alex nodded, and raised his Lockshield. The solid code spread out and attacked anything in sight. In this case, the Hostile Program.

Tron and Alex started throwing more code at the enemy, who started dropping clusters. Sora was quick to pick them up, and safe in doing so; the two of them had the Hostile Program's full attention. Finally, a huge group of code completely surrounded Tron and Alex. A red panel appeared in front of Alex. Alexander looked back at Tron, nodded, and mashed the panel. The code spread out and literally mauled the Hostile Program. Dropping even more clusters, by the way.

Sora was ready. He pointed his Keyblade at the program and froze it in place. It was completely defenseless. Alex got another idea. He jumped up onto the Hostile Program and used his Lockshield like a crowbar to pry off one of the armored plates. Sora got the hint and did the same. Soon, the program's body was completely defenseless. Alex smirked as he jumped off. "Kairi, would you like to do the honors?"

Kairi quickly rushed forward, raised her Keyblade, and brought it down on the Hostile Program. By now, Sora's freeze had ended. But the program had taken more damage than it could handle. They all stepped back as it shuddered for a bit in the air and landed on the ground with a thump. The body started to glow with an electrical light. "It's gonna blow!" Alex shouted, shielding his eyes.

And, after a few more seconds of tension, indeed it did.

* * *

There was a pillar of light over the platform in the communications room. The User world was safe now. Tron was working on the terminal, preparing them for the trip home. "I really owe you one," he remarked. "With all my functions up and running, I think I have a chance of getting system control away from the MCP. Now I'd better get to work. It's what my User would want."

"What Ansem would want..." Sora repeated to himself. He glanced back at Donald, Goofy, and Kairi, who nodded. Sora turned back to Tron. "Listen, Tron. We didn't get the password from Ansem. We just sort of found it, back in the User world. By accident. And one more thing... Ansem... he was our enemy. I mean... he still is... I guess."

Tron stood up. "Well, actually... he's my enemy too." Sora and the others jumped at this. "What do you mean?" Sora asked. Tron turned to them. "Ansem took ENCOM's original system and customized it for his own use. I was part of the original system, and Ansem modified me, too. So that makes him my User." Sora and company nodded at this.

There was a short pause. "But Ansem's also the one who brought back the MCP. The Ansem I first knew wouldn't do that. I'm sorry I didn't tell you."

Sora sighed. "That's okay, but... now I **really** don't get it." Alex chuckled and took a step forward. "Tron, you're completely right. The Ansem you knew would never do that." He walked over to Tron and whispered into his ear for a couple minutes. Tron's eyes widened as he heard this. "I see. Of course," Tron murmured. This only agitated Sora further. "What did you say to him, Alex?"

Alex smirked. "I'll explain when we get out of here." Tron nodded. "Now go, before the MCP starts acting up again!" The quintet stood at attention, waiting for Tron to activate the transportation program. Tron made a few parting notes. "Any data you need from the DTD can be accessed directly from my User's terminal. I'll keep a dedicated access channel open for you. I changed the password, so you don't have to worry about the MCP for a while."

Sora seemed confused once again. "Access channel?" Tron laughed. "I knew you'd ask." He pressed a button on the terminal interface. "It's a very important link between our worlds. It's how we stay connected."

Cylindrical beams of light enveloped the five companions. "You... my friends..." Tron stated, "are the new password." Sora smiled and nodded. "Thanks Tron! Take care!" Tron smiled back. "You too! And give my best to the Users!" The quintet disappeared in a flash of light.

* * *

**Disclaimer: I only own Alexander, Joumae, and the Lockshield. Every other element of this story belongs to their respective owners. Namely Square-Enix and Disney.**


	22. Villains Of A Sort

Chapter 22**  
**Villains Of A Sort

Once more they appeared in Ansem's computer room. Leon was staring at the computer screen. He turned to them as the quintet approached the terminal. "Well, that's that!" Sora declared.

Leon jabbed a thumb at the screen, with a grin on his face. "Look." Alex looked, and smiled. **_That's cute,_** Roxas admitted. The screen was almost completely orange, and there were five eight-bit sprites in the center which resembled the quintet. At the bottom were the words, 'Thank you!'

"Tron..." Kairi mumbled, "hang in there." Leon got back to business. "So, where do we start?"

Sora grinned. "I know! Let's access the DTD!" As Leon started typing on the keyboard, Sora and the others looked around and noticed an absence.

"The King's checking the situation in town," Leon explained. "He'll be back soon, so don't worry." Alex heard Joumae chuckle. **_Yeah, and then the real fun part begins, right Alex?_**

Leon spoke up before Alex could reply. "Hey, look, it's asking for a password," Leon noted, turning to the quintet. Goofy smiled. "That's easy. It's..."

"Sora!" Sora cut in excitedly. Leon smirked and went back to typing. Donald drew himself to his full height (which wasn't that much). "Donald!"

Goofy did the same. "Goofy!"  
"Kairi!"  
Alex grinned. "Alexander!"

"That's... to the point," Leon conceded. Sora stepped forward and looked at the screen. "Well?" Leon had a satisfied look on his face. "That did it. We're in." He turned to leave. "I have to go into town. Need to see what that last shakeup did."

"You're not gonna check out the data?" Sora asked, surprised. "It wasn't exactly easy to get!" Leon glanced at the screen. "I'm coming right back. Hey, Sora – why don't you get started on loading the data and copying it down?"

Sora had a look of resignation on his face. Leon walked by, placing a hand on Sora's shoulder. "It's just a few keystrokes. Easy, right?" To Alex, that last remark seemed... well, Alex couldn't place his finger on the word. **_Sarcastic,_** Joumae filled in for him. Alex groaned. _That's right. Sarcasm. How could I have forgotten?_

**_Wishful thinking?_** Joumae suggested. Alex shook his head and approached the computer. Everyone gathered around him, waiting for him to start working. "Did it work?" Donald asked.

"Hey, these things take time, okay?" Sora yelled, obviously as an excuse to at least try to **look** like he knew what he was doing. Alex laughed and started typing. A command prompt came up and started scrolling by. "Woah!" Sora exclaimed. "It's doing something!"

A line saying "Search: " came up. There was an underscore flashing where Alex would type. "Huh?" Donald mumbled. Goofy tried to make heads or tails of it. "I think it wants to know what we want to know."

Sora shoved Alex out of the way. He typed four letters onto the line: R, I, K, U, and pressed the Enter key. The computer processed this for a few moments. A window came up, saying "DATA ERROR."

"No way..." Sora mumbled. He stalked away from the keyboard. "Even Ansem's computer doesn't know..."

Alex straightened his outfit and stood back in place. The search prompt appeared again. "Sora... The data on the computer can only be what somebody put on it. This computer hasn't had a User access it for... perhaps years. Riku wasn't involved by the time Hollow Bastion became a ruin. So it's natural that a computer wouldn't know." Sora nodded solemnly.

Alex resumed typing. "Whatcha doing?" Donald asked him. Alex sighed. "I'd like to see if this computer has anything about the Nobodies." He typed in "Nobody" into the search prompt and pressed Enter. After a few seconds, a window with a text file appeared. In the background of the window was the Nobody's emblem. "What's this?"

Suddenly, the text file disappeared, and was replaced with the DATA ERROR window again. "The data is corrupt," a generic voice stated in an monotone. Alex growled. "Well, it's no use searching for the Organization, then..." He got an idea. "How about Ansem? Once more into the breach," he muttered as he typed in Ansem into the computer.

A window appeared, with a picture of somebody at the right side. He looked to be in his late thirties, had bright blond hair and a goatee, and wore a large red scarf over a white suit and a tie. "Who's this guy?" Sora asked. Kairi gave the picture a funny look.

"Welp, I see ya got things workin'!"

"Oh, Your Majesty!" they all greeted King Mickey, who quickly shushed them yet again. "Good goin'," Mickey remarked as he approached the computer. "The computer should tell us the things we need to know."

Goofy protested, "But it keeps on sayin' that the data inside's all ker-skuffled." Sora shrugged. "All we got is a picture of some guy we don't know." Mickey jumped when he saw the picture. "Ansem the Wise!" he exclaimed.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy exchanged confused glances. Kairi kept staring at the picture, and Alex slapped his forehead. "Come on," Sora muttered with a chuckle, "are you teasing us again?" Donald sighed. "Did you forget what Ansem looked like, Your Majesty?"

"Of course I remember!" Mickey insisted. "And this is him! I'm positive!" Sora had just about had it. "Excuse me? Could you come this way please?" He grabbed Mickey by the arm and started dragging him back to the study, forcing the King to stumble to keep his balance. Donald and Goofy followed. Alex motioned for Kairi to follow. "Brace yourself," he warned her. "This'll be another long explanation."

* * *

Sora put Mickey in front of the portrait of the familiar Ansem. "Look," Sora lectured the King, "**This** is Ansem. You know, the guy we all worked reeealy hard to defeat?"

"Oh, that's right," Mickey muttered, "I never finished explaining." **_Actually,_** Roxas remarked with some confusion, **_I don't think you ever really started._**

Sora repeated Roxas's statement. Mickey sighed. "Well, I'm gonna explain now." He looked at Alex. "I'll trust you to fill in the blank spots, okay?" Without waiting for a reply, he delved right into the explanation.

"Well, the man in the picture is definitely the one who tried to take over Kingdom Hearts in the first game – the one you fellas defeated." Alex raised an eyebrow, realizing that Mickey had become self-aware too. "But," Mickey continued, "what you actually fought was his Heartless. Ya see, he wasn't really Ansem. He just went around telling everybody that he was."

"You mean..." Sora mumbled. The trio exchanged a glance. Then they did a humongous take, screaming, "**WHAAAAT?**" and making the other three jump wildly.

"We went through all that trouble to defeat an impostor?" Sora yelled, and hung his head. Mickey looked like it was nothing. "Yep. A fake. But he still had to be stopped."

"Aw," Donald whined, "I can't believe it..." Goofy threw in his two cents. "Uh, I'm kinda confused. If he's a fake, what happened to the real Ansem?" Mickey shrugged. "Welp, that's just what I'm tryin' to figure out."

He turned to the corridor to the computer room. "Ansem the Wise should know all about Organization XIII's plans, and what's been happening to the worlds. I'm pretty sure he'll give us some help." He turned back to the quintet. "Ya know, I came close to finding him once..."

Kairi stared thoughtfully at the portrait. "Hmm..." Sora was losing it. "Don't tell me there's more? I'm lost enough as it is!"

"Well, let's see," Goofy started. "Some feller called Ansem, who wasn't really Ansem, became a Heartless." Kairi nodded. "Does that mean there was a Nobody created, too?" she finished for him.

Mickey nodded vigorously. "Yup! And that Nobody is the leader of the Organization," he added nonchalantly. "**WHAAAAT?**" the trio screamed again, making Alex clamp his hands over his ears.

Mickey stared at the portrait. "I know I've met this fake Ansem before, and I've seen the leader of Organization XIII, too. Hmm, kinda felt like bein' around the same fella." Sora was still confused, but he was at least trying to pick up the pieces. "So, where did you meet this guy?" he asked.

"Gosh..." Mickey remarked, folding his arms, "I can't remember." Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Kairi hung their heads. Alex shook his head and cleared his throat. Everyone turned to him. "I believe this is where I come in, correct? It's my turn... again... to give a huge explanation."

The others ignored the apparent sarcasm, because it was indeed true. They waited for Alex to begin. Alex sighed. "Well, let me see if I can tell you the story in order..." he remarked, trailing off.

* * *

Ansem the Wise had six apprentices. Xehanort, Braig, Dilan, Elaeus, Even, and Ienzo. They were all studying the heart. Specifically, the darkness in the heart and why it was so dangerous. The apprentices convinced Ansem to take their research a step further. They actually created the first Heartless by extracting a dark heart.

Ansem immediately stopped the experiments in their tracks when he realized what they had done. Unfortunately, the Heartless they had created was already going around stealing hearts. The Heartless were already multiplying, and couldn't be stopped.

But the apprentices were only more intrigued by the Heartless's behavior. But they couldn't convince Ansem to further the research. So they decided to exile Ansem from the world, banishing him to the realm of nothingness ("...or something like that," Alex added hurriedly).

With their master out of the way, the six apprentices were free to continue studying the Heartless. Eventually, Xehanort decided that the only way to control the Heartless was to become a Heartless willingly. And so he did. And so did the rest of the apprentices.

One can only imagine the happenings that went on during their experiments. But the other five apprentices disappeared somewhere. Xehanort started his own work, ending up with his plot to take over Kingdom Hearts in the first game, which led to his demise. ("I don't know where the other apprentices are," Alex admitted. "For all I know, Xehanort destroyed them. But perhaps not. Anyway...")

The six apprentices also had six Nobodies. They, in realizing that they didn't have hearts, decided to start an Organization to get their hearts back, working with any other Nobodies that helped. Xehanort, or "Ansem," became Xemnas (according to the Nobody anagram rule). Xemnas is the leader of Organization XIII. Braig's Nobody is Xigbar, and Dilan's Nobody is Xaldin. Even's Nobody was one called Vexen, but he had been destroyed in the Chain of Memories game. The Nobodies of Elaeus and Ienzo, Lexaeus and Zexion respectively, were also destroyed in that game.

* * *

"You...!" Sora growled at the portrait of Xehanort. "You started all of this! Because of you, Riku..." Then he remembered something. "Oh! Your Majesty, do you know where Riku is?"

Mickey flinched. "He's..." He sighed. "I'm sorry. I can't help." Sora walked around to face Mickey. "Really, Your Majesty? Are you sure?" he wondered. Mickey avoided Sora's gaze. "I'm sorry, Sora."

Alex sighed. "Sora..." He paused, not finding the words to say. **_Wow. A loss for words?_** Joumae remarked coldly. Alex would've glared at Joumae if he could see him. _This is not the time._ He sighed. "I don't think that Riku... wants to be found."

Sora and Mickey quickly turned to face him again. Mickey didn't say anything, but his eyes betrayed his fear. "Mickey..." Alex muttered. "I made no promise." Mickey hung his head and turned away to stare at the portrait again. Sora was ecstatic. "What promise? What do you mean?" he screamed.

Alex flinched. "Mickey made a promise to Riku not to tell you where he was, or what had happened to him. Riku didn't want you to know... about what I'm gonna tell you." Alex shook his head before Sora could say a word. "I don't know where he is, but it will help if you understand what had happened to him." He glanced at Mickey. "It's not breaking your promise if I tell them," he remarked.

Sora was all ears. Alex might as well have been all mouth. "You remember that Ans-... Xehanort's Heartless had controlled Riku for a period of time, correct? And that Xehanort had used Riku's body as a... host of sorts?" Sora nodded, shuddering at the memory.

Alex went on. "Well, even when Xehanort had been defeated, a small portion of his darkness was still within Riku's heart. That Heartless threatened to take control of Riku again. But, apparently, he had learned somewhere down the road to balance the light and darkness in his heart. By the end of Chain of Memories, he pretty much had nothing to fear from the darkness.

"Here's the complicated part. Ansem the Wise had eventually escaped from the realm that he had been banished to. He met Riku, and Ansem believed that Riku could help with his plans for revenge. But that required you waking up, Sora. Unfortunately, it looked like Roxas needed to merge with you for that to happen."

**_Makes sense,_** Roxas agreed. **_I'm half of you, so you probably needed me to be one with you first. Unfortunately, I was still with the Organization at the beginning._**

Alex sighed. "Riku left to fight Roxas and try to beat and drag him back to Twilight Town, where they were keeping you. Obviously, Riku lost the first time." **_Yeah, back when we fought you guys at the Station of Awakening, I had said that I had defeated Riku once before, remember?_** Sora nodded, slowly taking this all in.

Alex continued even more. "Well, I think Riku had made a resolution at that point. He decided that if he was going to beat the darkness, he needed to immerse himself in that darkness. He used Xehanort's darkness to change his form and increase his strength. Roxas lost the second time."

The meaning seemed lost on Sora. "What I mean is," Alex explained, "Riku looks like Xehanort's Heartless now, but he's still Riku at heart. He doesn't want to be found because he doesn't want you to know what happened to him. About being lost in the darkness."

It finally sank in. Sora's gaze turned to the floor. After a moment, he sighed and replied, "So? If he's still Riku at heart, then I don't care what he looks like! He's still my friend, and I plan on going back to the islands together. All three of us!"

"Sora. Donald. Goofy. Kairi. Alexander," Mickey muttered. He turned to face them. His expression seemed a bit more determined now. "I was plannin' to go get help from Ansem the Wise. But, now I know I forgot the most important thing."

He paused, smiling at them. "Helping others should always come before asking others for help. We're safe and sound – and free to choose! So there's no reason we shouldn't choose to help our friends!" Everyone nodded at this. "Let's look for Riku together!" Mickey declared.

At that moment, a huge rumble happened throughout the castle, nearly knocking everyone off their feet. "Outside!" Sora shouted, realizing that something had impacted the castle's exterior.

Mickey suddenly got serious. "Sounds like we gotta start by helpin' out here!" He started running for the door out. Sora ran through the door of Ansem's study and into the corridors, a little ways behind Mickey. Everyone followed him, with Alex taking up the rear. He grinned. His favorite part of the game was approaching.

**To be continued...**

* * *

**Disclaimer: I only own Alexander, Joumae, and the Lockshield. Every other element of this story belongs to their respective owners. Namely Square-Enix and Disney.**


	23. Showdown At Hollow Bastion

Chapter 23  
Showdown At Hollow Bastion

Out in the corridors, the Heartless and the Nobodies were having a bit of a skirmish. Dusk and Dancer Nobodies versus Armored Knight Heartless. Maleficent and Pete were on one side of the room representing the Heartless. Maleficent stretched forth a hand toward her minions. "Hear me, my Heartless! Attack the white husks! Sweep them away!"

Pete's jaw had dropped. The Nobodies were effectively ripping the Heartless to shreds. "What, are you nuts?" Pete responded in disbelief. "We're never gonna win!" He pointed a shaking hand at the battle for emphasis. "I don't know about you, but I'm outta here, sister!" Pete started running away.

As soon as he rounded a corner, Maleficent muttered, "You pathetic coward!" She glanced at the battle before her. The Dusks had taken care of most of the Heartless already, and were facing her. She grimaced and looked at the other side of the room, where the quintet had just entered the corridor with their weapons. Maleficent glared at them. "Hmph." She disappeared in green flames.

"Heartless!" her voice echoed through the room. "Leave the white ones! Turn your attention to Sora and his friends!" Suddenly, all of the Heartless and Nobodies turned toward the quintet.

"Uh-oh!" Goofy wailed, hiding behind his shield. Alex quickly glanced through the crowd of enemies. "Uh-oh is right," he realized. "There are Dancer Nobodies in here." He indicated the pink slender Nobodies gracefully prancing around.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Sora demanded, also minding the enemy. Nobodies were much smarter than Heartless, and therefore more dangerous.

"Because," Alex explained, "the higher level forms of Nobody usually are commanded by one of Organization XIII's members. The Dancers are led by Demyx!"

Donald groaned, readying his staff. "Not Demyx again!" Kairi was confused, but didn't question it. She didn't have time. "Here they come!"

Sora got an idea. "Alex! Let's use the Drives!" He prepared to use Master Form.

"Wait! We can't both use Master," Alex warned him. "We'd need four other people. Mickey disappeared somewhere," he added grudgingly. "We have to use one of the others. I'll use Valor, you use Wisdom."

There was no more room for discussion. Both Sora's and Alex's head and limbs jerked back, and light shot out from their clothes. Donald and Goofy disappeared. When the light faded, Sora's clothes had turned to a deep blue, and was kind of gliding on his feet. Alex's clothes were a bright red, and he held two Lockshields! His Lockshield, the Heartless Seal, was in one hand, and Joumae's Lockshield, the Kingdom Copy, was in the other. "Cool!" both boys exclaimed simultaneously.

Alexander rushed forward toward the Armored Knights. He bashed one shield on a Heartless's head, and cut through another with the other Lockshield. He continued with the attacks, going into a ridiculously big combo and clearing a good third of the room. When he was done, he had to shake his head vigorously. There was a lot of spinning involved in a shield-based combination attack.

Sora fired some shots at a few Nobodies, then got an idea. "_Magnet_!" he shouted, pointing his Keyblade over his head. A dark sphere of magnetic energy appeared where the Keyblade pointed. All of the enemies were drawn to it, being damaged by colliding with each other and shocked by the static electricity from the magnetism itself. The spell dissipated and the enemies dropped to the ground. By then, they were so disoriented that Kairi was able to finish them off with her Keyblade. **_Kairi, of all people!_** Joumae exclaimed, still reeling from the thought.

Sora and Alex reverted from their Drives. Donald and Goofy appeared. Donald's eyes were rolling. "I'm never gonna get used to it..." he mumbled groggily, shaking his head. "I still think it's pretty neat," Goofy remarked, being perfectly fine as usual.

Alex turned to his left. Right on time were Yuna, Rikku, and Paine flying toward them. "Where's Maleficent?" Yuna asked the quintet. Sora shrugged and said, "Looks like she ran away."

Rikku had an annoyed look on her face. "Well, that was **pret-**ty lame of her."

Paine sighed. "I guess we picked the wrong side." The three Friendly Neighborhood something-or-others turned to each other and started talking. Alex could guess where this was headed. Donald started tapping his foot impatiently, Sora folded his arms, Kairi sighed and started chuckling, and Alex held his head as if he was in pain. Goofy was blissfully oblivious.

Even Roxas was getting impatient. **_We need an idea, or else this can go on for years!_** he pleaded. Sora nodded to himself. "Umm, hey... if you're looking to pick sides, why not pick Leon's? They can always use help."

The three girls turned to the quintet. "Does this Leon have any treasure?" Yuna queried. Donald answered with great flourish, "Yeah, lotsa stuff!"

Alex didn't miss the almost-sneer of Donald's face. The three something-or-others did. "Perfect!" Rikku cheered. "Come on," Paine mumbled, nodded her head.

Before they left, Sora couldn't help but ask, "Who **are** you?" Yuna waved it aside. "Oh, we're nothing worth mentioning." Paine folded her arms. "Just three treasure fanatics." Rikku grinned at them. "Later, taters!" The three of them disappeared in flashes of light. Kairi stared thoughtfully. "Did Leon... really have any treasure?"

Donald chuckled evilly, and started running as Sora, Goofy, Alex, and Kairi chased after him.

* * *

They were finally outside. Just as they left the corridors, five Dusks got in their way. Sora brandished his Keyblade. "We don't have time for you!" Sora flipped over and slashed down on one of them, Donald whacked another with his staff, Goofy spun around and bashed another, Kairi slashed another diagonally, and Alex jumped up and brought the Lockshield down on the last Dusk's head. They all ran up to the postern.

Sora hadn't set so much as a foot onto the postern when a bright light shot down onto the platform and filled up the area. "Whoa!" The light slowly faded after a moment. Alexander's breath caught in his throat. There was a person standing where the light had been. It was impossible to not know who it was, even without seeing his face. After all, how can one miss the huge black wing? The figure turned toward the quintet, and Alex's suspicions were confirmed, if they had needed confirming.

"Sora, it's Sephiroth!" Donald shouted.

"Ain't Sephiroth the one who's supposed to be the dark part of Cloud's heart?" Goofy reasoned. Sephiroth chuckled. "Did Cloud tell you that?" He paused. "Then he must understand now."

"Just what are you gonna do to him?" Sora demanded. Alex grabbed the Keyblade Master's shoulder and pulled him back. "Nothing," Sephiroth replied. "Cloud is the one who hungers for Darkness."

"Alex, what are you doing?" Sora whispered, brushing Alex's hand off his shoulder. Alex looked nervous. "Sora, don't antagonize him," he hissed back. "We're no match for him if we get in a fight!"

If Sephiroth noticed this little exchange, he made no evidence of it. Sora nodded slowly and faced Sephiroth again. "He said he's got a score to settle with you," Sora remarked, meaning Cloud.

"I see..." Sephiroth muttered. "He wants to meet me again." He glanced at Alexander, but said nothing further. He turned around to leave. "Then I should give him what he wants. That last bit of light is always the hardest to snuff out." Sephiroth started to rise into the air. "Something you should keep in mind, Interference." Alex gasped as Sephiroth disappeared in an orb of darkness.

"Wha..." Alex was at a loss. "What did he mean, 'something I should keep in mind'?" He gulped. What had really scared him was that Sephiroth had referred to him as an Interference. Apparently, the infamous One-Winged Angel had become aware of the game as well.

"I think he was just tryin' to confuse ya'," Goofy remarked. Alex took several deep breaths, expelling the tension from his body. "Yeah, you're probably right." But he couldn't help but feel like Sephiroth knew something Alex didn't. Why would he need to keep it in mind? He wouldn't really need that information, would he?

Alex shook his head wildly. No, he didn't need that info. He wanted to keep his light intact, not snuff it out. He didn't hunger for darkness.

* * *

The quintet came running down the path to the bailey. Aerith and Leon were already there destroying Heartless. "We'll help!" Sora shouted, wielding his Keyblade. Aerith looked back at them and pointed. "Sora! Behind you!" Everyone looked where Aerith pointed. There were Dancers coming toward them.

"Goofy!" Alexander shouted. "I have an idea!" Goofy nodded, and got the hint. The two of them locked arms, held out their shields, and started spinning around. They whacked the Nobodies twofold, sending them flying and even destroying a couple. Sora and the others were quick to take care of the strays. Alex and Goofy's Limit took care of the main force.

Leon waved at them, also done on his part. "The King's in the bailey! You better head over there!" Sora nodded. "Got it!" They all ran toward the bailey.

When they came to the place, Alex was immensely surprised. "Holy cow..." he couldn't help but say, seeing the destruction before him. A whole half of the bailey had been torn away, and there was a huge hole in the wall leading to the Great Maw before them. The quintet ran down the hill. Sora squinted and looked at the scene ahead of them. "Woah..." he gasped. Alex had seen this many times before; he knew what Sora was seeing.

* * *

There was an entire Heartless **army** making its way toward them. Thousands of Armored Knights and Surveillance Robot Heartless marching toward the town of Hollow Bastion. Some were jumping down from the surrounding hills to join up with the main force in the Maw. The very ground shook with the impact of the thousands of Heartless marching.

* * *

Yuffie jumped up and caught her large shuriken. She stumbled over while landing and ended up on her backside. This battle was wearing her out; there were so many. She sat there gasping for breath.

Then a Cure spell went over her head. Aerith ran over to Yuffie while she slowly got up. They exchanged a few words, and ran toward the Heartless marching past them.

* * *

In the ravine trail, Stitch shot at a couple of the Heartless with his pistols. One tried to slash down at him, but Stitch jumped out of the way and fired a green burst at it, making it dissipate. He retreated a bit as more Heartless appeared.

* * *

Paine ran to the edge of the cliff, the Armored Knight close behind her. Paine jumped up and onto the Heartless, then jumped off its head. When the Armored Knight turned around, Rikku and Yuna flew down and kicked it hard, and the momentum sent it stumbling over the edge. The three of them cheered, but quickly flew away when more Heartless started charging at them.

* * *

Cloud and Leon were standing back to back on the ravine trail, facing the Heartless army that was surrounding them. "Think you can handle this many?" Leon asked. "Well..." Cloud replied. "Might be tough if one more shows up."

Leon chuckled. "Then that'll have to be the one I take care of." Cloud smirked. "What, you're fighting too?" Leon grunted. "Hmph." Suddenly, the two of them jumped forward, slashing down on the Heartless. Their battle had begun.

* * *

Cloud slashed a couple more Armored Knights. But even more surrounded him. Cloud corrected his fighting stance, ready to take them on. Suddenly, a whole row of them disappeared as they were cut in half. Cloud glared at the guy with silver hair and a long sword. Now there's a face one can't miss.

"Sephiroth!" Cloud shouted angrily, brandishing his buster sword. Sephiroth took a couple steps forward, and pointed his long sword at cloud. "I understand that you've been looking for me."

"Yeah," Cloud replied. "Once I get rid of you, the darkness will go away."

Sephiroth seemed skeptical. "Can you do it? That darkness comes from your own dark memories. Do you think you can erase your past?"

"Shut up!" Cloud yelled, reinforcing his glare. Sephiroth's voice now had a teasing ring to it. "Face it – you turn your back on the present and live in the past. Because the light of the present is too much!" Cloud insisted, "You don't know me!"

"Cloud!" Tifa's voice called out, cutting through the air of an almost-fight. Cloud glanced toward the direction it came from, but winced as if he was being blinded by a light.

"I know," Sephiroth stated. "Because... I am you." Sephiroth disappeared.

Cloud looked around, then quickly started running down the ravine trail. Tifa arrived just in time to see him leave. "Cloud! Wait!" The Heartless surrounded her. She got into a fighting stance. As some started to charge, she whacked one behind her, punched another in front of her, and kicked one at the side, sending them all flying. You just did not mess with Tifa, apparently. Tifa glared down the ravine trail.

* * *

"Leon... everybody – hang in there!" Sora muttered. The quintet resumed the charge down the hill. But they stopped when something dropped down from the cliffs above. It was Mickey. The King spread his arms out, motioning for them to go no further. "Okay, fellas, you've gotta go find Riku!"

"But Leon and the others are friends too!" Kairi protested. Mickey didn't seem to care. "Don't worry. There's already lotsa help here. We'll take care of this fight."

"But..." Sora whined. "I promised Leon!" His gaze shifted to the ground. He was torn between himself. Even Roxas couldn't help him decide.

"Donald! Goofy! Alexander! Take Sora and Kairi and get going!" The three of them stood at attention. Alex didn't seem so sure of himself, though.

Sora's eyes lit up with a new determination. "Riku... give me a little time, okay?" Donald, Goofy, and Alex did a take at this, and exchanged loaded looks. They nodded to each other. "Your Majesty!" Donald shouted, facing the King again. "We understand," Goofy replied. "We'll go search for Riku!"

Mickey didn't look back at them; he was too busy observing the Great Maw nervously. "Right. Watch for danger!"

"You be careful, too!" Donald agreed. Sora and Kairi turned back to them. "Wait, you guys!" Sora pleaded. He glanced at Mickey, who still wasn't paying much attention to them.

"Sora, Kairi, we've been ordered by the King!" Alex stated, getting into the act. Goofy nodded. "You're coming with us whether you want to or not!" Donald stared into Sora's eyes, trying to get the message across. "C'mon Sora! You gotta be good!" He winked at the Keyblade Master. Sora seemed a little confused at first. **_Do you really need more hints?_** Joumae shouted.

Sora nodded. "Gotcha." Kairi glanced at Sora, then finally nodded to herself, getting the idea. All of them smiled at each other. "Well then," Goofy added, "skedaddle!" Sora quietly mouthed a 'thank you'.

The quintet faced the Maw again, ready once more. "Let's go!" Donald shouted. They all ran forward, passing an instantly surprised Mickey. They jumped over the little cliff, landing on the platform below. They all turned and looked up at Mickey.

"Sorry, Your Majesty!" Sora apologized, saluting before jumped over the edge leading down to the Castle Gate area. Donald gulped and followed. "Hope you can forgive us!" Goofy added, saluting also before disappearing down the trail. Alex and Kairi followed suit.

Mickey sighed and rolled his eyes, but a smile seemed to try to force its way onto his expression.

* * *

They had just gotten to the Castle Gate when a dark portal began to be formed. They all knew it was going to be a Nobody because of the gray jagged thread-like substance that surrounded it. 'Nothing Threads', Joumae liked to call them.

Demyx appeared, and he apparently wasn't expecting such a welcoming committee. He averted his gaze and groaned a little, but after a few seconds he regained his composure and remarked, "Hey, you guys are looking lively."

"Scram!" Donald ordered the Nobody. Sora smirked. "Didn't we catch you messing around in the Underworld?" Alex also smirked. "And in the basement of the Old Mansion?"

"How'd a wimp like you get into Organization XIII?" Sora added. Demyx flinched wildly, sensing a fight coming. He'd had his butt handed to him by the quartet a couple times before, so he was more than a little wary now. Sora folded his arms. "I bet you can't even fight." Alex heard Roxas say nothing yet.

"Yeah, but we can!" Donald added. Demyx got control over himself again. "You shouldn't judge anyone by appearance," he stated in a deeper, more threatening voice, shaking a finger at them while he did so.

Alex laughed out loud. "Is that an imitation of one of your superiors?" They all brought out their weapons and got into a fighting stance. Demyx jumped again, and even turned around to run. But he stopped himself and groaned. "I told them they were sending the wrong guy..." He was apparently acting under orders he didn't like.

As he continued to complain to himself, the quintet stood there confused. "Who is this kook?" Sora asked. Roxas finally trusted himself to speak. **_Don't underestimate him that much, guys. His control over water can be a nuisance if he tries hard enough. _**Sora got serious again. Goofy spoke up. "Remember, the Organization's made up of Nobodies." Kairi nodded. "Right... no hearts!"

Demyx reacted negatively to this. He looked back at them, pouting. "Oh, we do too have hearts! Don't be mad..."

Donald pointed at him accusingly. "You can't trick us!" Demyx sighed and turned around fully. He pointed at Sora menacingly. "Silence, traitor," he growled in a serious voice that was definitely his own. Sora did a take.

Water started to appear around Demyx. When there was enough, he raised his hand and brought all the water to it. A bubble of water appeared in his hand, then it burst and formed his sitar. He twirled it around and pointed at the quintet with a grin on his face, ready to fight to the end this time.

"Dance water dance!" he yelled for the third time. About fifty water forms appeared around him. Unfortunately, the quartet was used to this. The water forms were decimated in seconds. When that trial was over with, Alex immediately charged at Demyx and landed a few hits. Demyx was thrown back. Alexander charged again, but this time, the Nobody was ready. Demyx swung his sitar around, hitting Alex squarely in the stomach. The momentum was enough to throw Alex halfway across the area, and he landed with an undignified "Oof!"

The rest of the party ran toward Demyx. The Nobody grinned. "Like it?" Pillars of water shot up at them out of nowhere, sending the four of them flying. Demyx used that technique to propel himself forward to where Alex was starting to get up.

Demyx created some bubbles and shot them at Alexander. Alex knew that if they made contact, they would burst and do plenty of damage. Alex panicked, yelling "_Reflect_!" A barrier appeared just as the bubbles approached. The bubbles burst, and the damage was absorbed by the spell. Then the spell shot back the damage at Demyx, who was thrown back.

That was all the opening they needed. Kairi jumped up and slammed the Keyblade into Demyx's back. Then Donald shot a Blizzard spell at the Nobody, which caught him in the stomach. Goofy swung his shield and whacked Demyx's forehead, sending him stumbling backward. Finally, Sora charged at him from behind and slashed through Demyx with all his might.

Demyx fell to one knee, gasping for breath. As he tried to stand up, his sitar lit up and dissolved into water. Demyx stared at his hand, and wailed, "No way!" He fell to both knees and faded into darkness and water. Demyx was defeated at last.

Sora glared at the surroundings. "Anyone from the Organization who'd like to be next?" he challenged the air around him.

"Hey, Sora!" Donald shouted. "Don't antagonize them!" Goofy nodded. "Yeah, we gotta go help our friends out first."

"Oh," Sora said, slightly embarrassed. "Sorry." Kairi nodded. "Then let's go!" They didn't take more than half a step before a voice shouted, "Aha! There you are!" Everyone flinched and turned to Mickey, who was approaching them. Mickey folded his arms and glared at them. All of them except Alexander looked guilty. Then the King's expression suddenly softened. "You sure have lotsa friends to help."

Everyone brightened up at this. Mickey continued, "So, I guess we better all pull together and finish this battle for good!" The quintet stood at attention. "Yes, Your Majesty!" they all replied. Mickey nodded and started walking forward.

Above them, a Surveillance Robot was charging its beam. It shot at an Armored Knight on the cliff, but missed and broke a large boulder into many pieces. One of the pieces, a remarkably large chunk, was heading straight for King Mickey. Goofy noticed this before anyone else. "Look out!" he cried, shoving Mickey out of the way. Goofy took the blow to the head, and skidded into a wall, bonking his head again. All of them ran toward him. "Goofy!" Sora yelled. Goofy didn't reply. He couldn't. Mickey slowed to a stop. "No..."

Donald knelt beside Goofy and shook him. "Hey! You're the King's Captain! You gotta get up!" Sora also got onto all fours and knelt beside Goofy. "C'mon, wake up!" Donald pounded on Goofy's chest. "I'm sorry about the ice cream!"

But Goofy didn't stir. Kairi looked down on Goofy, shocked. "Goofy...?" Donald wailed, beginning to cry. "Goofy..." Sora was shaking. "This is not happening..."

"It's not..." Alex murmured to himself. "It can't be happening..." Sora continued, not hearing Alex. "It won't..." Alex confirmed, still out of Sora's earshot. "It can't..." Sora repeated, still in shock. Alex rolled his eyes.

Mickey curled his hands into fists. He turned to the ravine trail. "They'll pay for this." He threw his Organization cloak off and summoned his Keyblade. He started running down the trail. Donald also got up, really angry now. Following Mickey's example, Donald charged down the path in an uproar. Sora stood up, looked down at Goofy, then ran after the others.

Kairi glanced at Alex. "Is he...?" Alex laughed openly now. "Of course not. He's got a harder head than the rest of us," he remarked, tapping his own head for emphasis. Alex looked at the path the others had gone down. "I'd better catch up with them. You stay here with Goofy. When he comes to, give him this." Alex handed Kairi a Potion, then ran to the ravine trail.

* * *

As soon as the Castle Gate was out of sight, he was immediately ambushed by Heartless. A barrier was formed in the way of the path he needed to follow. Obviously, he needed to defeat all of the Heartless to continue. Alex summoned the Lockshield and was about to attack, but a cloud of smoke appeared next to him. "Need some help?" came a familiar voice.

"Yuffie!" Alex exclaimed. The self-proclaimed master ninja was fighting right next to him. Alexander charged at the Heartless, slashing a few. But Yuffie was far more experienced, and took out far more then Alex did. Yuffie threw her shuriken at the Heartless, which cut through them and swung back. When Yuffie caught it, it started to glow a bright green. Alex immediately got out of the way. The shuriken started flying around her in a wide arc, destroying the rest of the Heartless. The barrier disappeared. "Well then, get going!" Yuffie ordered. Alex nodded, and continued down the trail.

Alex ran into a closed space in the trail. More Heartless appeared, and two barriers came up to close him in. But Leon had gotten through before the one behind him rose. "Let's go!" Leon advised. Alex nodded, and brought his shield down on a Armored Knight. Leon's gunblade started to glow, and in seconds it became a huge blade of energy. Alex wisely got out of the way. Leon's sword cut through the Heartless in a wide radius. Alexander merely watched his back. Soon the Heartless were gone again, and Alex continued onward.

Alex rounded the next corner, this time expecting the welcoming committee of the Heartless. Alexander took one step to the left. Not too soon, either, because Tifa came crashing through the Heartless ranks. "Tifa?" Alex mumbled. The fighter nodded and stood by Alex's side. Tifa didn't have quite as wide a range as Yuffie or Leon had, so Alex got a bit more action this time. But nearly every hit Tifa made was a fatal one for the Heartless, so she still cleaned house, so to speak. Alex even had a few Heartless come his way after being knocked back by Tifa. More Heartless went down, and Alex ran further down the trail.

Alex could see the entrance to the Crystal Fissure, but a group of Shadows blocked his path. Right as Alex reached the enemies, Cloud dropped down and stabbed his sword into the ground. The shockwave sent the Shadows flying. "Hey, Cloud!" Alex yelled, excited now. He was fighting alongside Cloud, of all people. He grinned at the thought of how many fanboys would _kill_ to be in his place. But Alex had never played FFVII, so he couldn't really say. Alex wisely stayed out of Cloud's buster blade's radius, so that he could concentrate on his own enemies and not avoiding Cloud's attacks himself. Cloud took out most of the Heartless, and Alexander wasted no time getting through to the Crystal Fissure.

* * *

Alex leaned against a wall in the fissure, gasping for breath. He'd never been in a fight that intense. Sora, Donald, and Mickey were there too. "You okay?" Mickey asked them. Sora stood up. "Yeah, I'm fine, but..." Donald and Mickey were solemn again. "Ohh, Goofy..." Donald wailed. Alex would've chuckled, if he'd had the breath in his lungs to do it.

"Hey, fellas!" an all-too-familiar voice rang out in the fissure. Everyone did a take. It was Goofy, smiling and waving. "Goofy!" Sora, Donald, and Mickey exclaimed simultaneously. Goofy ran toward them, rubbing his head. "Ya know, that really hurt!"

Mickey didn't care, instead embracing his pal in a big bear hug. "Aw, Goofy!" Goofy didn't seem fazed by the worry. "Gawrsh, Yer Majesty, I get bumped on the head all the time." Sora laughed. Donald wasn't so easily amused. The duck stomped over to Goofy and banged his knee with his staff. Goofy yelped and bounced around, clutching his knee. "That hurt, too," he whined.

Donald wailed again. "Don't you ever do that again!" Mickey smiled, and the old threesome started talking amongst themselves. Sora noticed something, however. "Where's Kairi?"

The air seemed to pause in the fissure. Goofy then remembered something. "I almost forgot! One of those Organization goons kidnapped Kairi!"

"**What**?!" Everyone yelled, including Alex. Alexander got off the wall and shook Goofy's shoulders. "You sure?"

Goofy nodded vigorously. "Yep, I had just woken up, and I saw this blue-haired guy dragging Kairi into a portal. It was too late for me to save her," he added with a guilty tone.

Alex dropped to his knees. "I can't believe it..." He stared off into space. All that effort, all that planning... and the same thing had happened again. Just delayed, nothing more. Kairi had been kidnapped, all the same, by Organization XIII. And now Alex couldn't interfere.

Sora was also visibly shocked by the news. "Kairi... Now I've lost Kairi too," he muttered to himself. Alex slowly stood up. "I'm sorry, Sora. I shouldn't have left her..."

"Don't say that!" Sora shouted. Alexander did a take and turned toward Sora. "But..."

Sora shook his head. "Organization XIII did this. Not Goofy, and not you." Mickey nodded. "And standing around moping isn't gonna help anybody," the Disney mouse added, "especially not Kairi. If we're going to do something, we need to do so now."

Alex's confidence was bolstered for a while, his guilt forgotten. "Very well." He stared at the other end of the fissure they were in, the path to the Great Maw. An important event was approaching, and he didn't need any guilt trips in the way. That could be saved for later. "Let's get this showdown over with, first and foremost."

* * *

All of them ran into the Great Maw. But they all skidded to a stop when they saw the Heartless. "Huh?" Mickey mumbled. "What's with them?" Sora asked. The Heartless had completely paused. They were just standing still. Not doing anything, even though there were intruders.

"Hey!" Goofy shouted, pointing at a cliff ahead. A dark portal had appeared where Goofy pointed, and an Organization member stepped out of it. The Nobody pulled back his hood and stared down at the five of them. Alex gasped. There was no mistaking that face, even at that distance.

"Xehanort!" Donald yelled. "You mean it's his Nobody!" Goofy corrected him. "The leader of Organization XIII..." Sora muttered. "Xemnas..." Alexander breathed.

"Ansem's apprentice... The leader of Organization XIII is Xehanort's Nobody!" Mickey declared. The memory had come back to him. He summoned his Keyblade and ran toward the cliff, hoping to catch Xemnas. Sora wasn't so quick. "Let's go!" he yelled, before the quartet was surrounded by the now active Heartless.

Everyone brought out their weapons. Alex started to giggle. This was his favorite part of the game. The one-thousand Heartless battle. But his mirth subsided when he saw the sheer numbers of the army before them. There was a thousand, and they were completely surrounded. Bad odds. And this battle would be far more complicated than the usual button-mashing Alex was used to. But they stood their ground. What choice did they have?

"Move it!" Sora shouted at the Heartless. Donald glanced at Sora. "We can't let Xehanort get away!" Sora nodded. "Right!"

Sora looked back at Donald and Goofy, who gave Sora a thumbs-up and charged at the Heartless. Sora and Alex brandished their own respective weapons and prepared themselves. "I'm ready if you are," Alex muttered. Sora gave a quick nod.

Alexander charged with a yell, with Sora right behind him. The Heartless army's advance quickened. At least one-thousand Heartless versus the two protagonists. **_It's going to be close,_** Joumae quietly muttered as the foremost Armored Knights leaped toward the Lockshield and Keyblade Masters.

**To be continued...**

* * *

**Disclaimer: I only own Alexander, Joumae, and the Lockshield. Every other element of this story belongs to their respective owners. Namely Square-Enix and Disney.**


	24. Sinister Shadows

Chapter 24  
Sinister Shadows

Alexander slashed through another Armored Knight Heartless. "There's no end to these things!" he exclaimed, half panicked. Sora and Alex were fighting for their lives in the middle of one-thousand Heartless. So far, they had cleared perhaps 350 of them. Not bad so far.

In some cases, it was simple. Alexander remembered the reaction commands from the video game, so it was... easy.

No, actually, it wasn't. The techniques involved, like Rising Sun and Sparkle Ray, were more than just mashing a button. It was a complicated process of using an enemy's attack against its fellows.

Take Rising Sun, for instance. Rising Sun is actually the Armored Knights' own technique, where they jump up and slash at their enemy. The reaction command involves copying the technique with the Lockshield's or Keyblade's power _while the Heartless was about to initiate the attack_. Then, with the copied technique, they could fly by and slash through the Heartless four times in a row, taking out about five at a time.

Sparkle Ray was far more simple. While the Surveillance Robot Heartless was about to fire its beam attack, one of them had to jump up and grab it. Then, with the charged beam, they spun around with it while the beam decimated its own allies.

But still, there were a good 650 of them left. The Heartless had the advantage in sheer numbers. And Alexander was definitely not used to prolonged fighting. He dropped to one knee from exhaustion. Battle fatigue was not something that you could take care of with a simple Cure spell. It had to be fought through without complaints. Alex groaned in spite of himself.

Sora found his way back to Alexander. "Any ideas?" he asked, giving the Interference a boost as the Heartless made a circle around them again. Wearily, Alex looked at their surroundings. There were certainly fewer Heartless than they had started out with, but there were still many to go. "A Limit would work just fine... if I hadn't used the last of my magic with a Reflect spell," Alex replied, parrying an Armored Knight's sword with the Lockshield and returning the attack in kind.

Sora groaned. Limits required magic power from both users. It used up **all** magic power. Unfortunately, if there wasn't a drop left, then a Limit couldn't be done. They had to wait a few minutes until Alex's magic recharged to its fullest. And Alex had never developed the habit of bringing Ethers with him into battle.

So they went back to the usual beating up of the Heartless. Fortunately, the fear of getting killed (or worse, like getting turned into a Heartless) worked against the fatigue, so Alex was able to keep himself up. He kept using Rising Sun to stall time until his magic recharged.

"Sora!" Alex yelled, feeling the magic power return to him in full. Sora nodded and ran toward Alexander. When Sora got close enough, Alex grabbed his feet and launched him high into the air. Sora pointed his Keyblade down at Alex. A blue beam shot down from the tip of the Keyblade and went into the small keyhole in Alex's Lockshield. The Lockshield began to shine on contact, and the whole area was filled up with a bright light.

When the light subsided, about two-thirds of the remaining Heartless had disappeared. There were only about 200 Heartless left. There wasn't even enough to overflow the Great Maw now. Sora landed back on the ground and grinned at Alex. It had been an okay Limit, given the little time they had to think of it. Sora and Alex charged at the rest of the Heartless, smashing them up easily. The Heartless as individuals actually went down easily, Alex realized. It was just their numbers that made them dangerous.

* * *

Sora and Alex moved on, running up the passage to the Dark Depths. Sora leaned on a wall, gasping for breath. Alex fell down to his knees, and rolled onto his back. **_Something tells me that's not your favorite part anymore,_** Joumae teased, free to speak now. The last thing Alex had needed during the thousand Heartless battle was Joumae becoming a backseat driver. So Joumae had remained silent until now.

Donald and Goofy came running up the path. Apparently, they had taken care of their share of the Heartless army. Alex sat up. Sora stood straight and turned to them. "Where's the King?" he asked. Donald looked around. Alex stood up and pointed at a clearing ahead. "There he is!" Mickey was there, taking out one last Armored Knight. Sora swung his Keyblade for emphasis. "C'mon!" The quartet raced to the Dark Depths.

Mickey faced the Organization's leader, who had his back turned to him. "Your Majesty!" Donald cried out, making Mickey jump. Mickey wasted no time. "Xehanort!" he shouted at the Nobody.

Xemnas opened his eyes and looked up. "How long has it been since I abandoned that name..." Alexander glared at the Nobody's back. This was the Organization's Superior, who had also apparently become aware of the game.

Sora didn't bother with even informalities. "Out with it, Nobody! Where's Kairi? Where's Riku?"

"I know nothing of any Kairi," Xemnas insisted. "As for Riku..." He paused to turn to the group of five. "Perhaps you should ask the Interference." Sora faltered, and glanced at Alexander. Alex shrugged.

"Stop!" Mickey shouted, running toward Xemnas. The Nobody opened a dark portal around himself and disappeared. Mickey jumped into it just as the portal closed. Sora was shocked. "He's gone..." He fell to his rump and pounded the ground with his fist. Now he had lost his link to Riku. Goofy put a hand on Sora's shoulder. Donald sighed. "Sora, Alex, Goofy." He tried to say something, but no words came out.

But a gasp of surprise soon followed. Donald pointed at the valley below. Back when they had first viewed this spot from the bailey, it had been swarming with Heartless. Now it was empty. Goofy looked down at it. "What's goin' on?"

"Way to fall right into their trap."

The quartet turned around to see a certain red-headed Nobody leaning on the rock wall behind them. They ran toward him and brandished their weapons, with the exception of Alex. Axel sighed and got off the wall. "C'mon, it's a set-up by Organization XIII. Xemnas is using you to destroy the Heartless – that's his big master plan."

Donald thought for a moment. "Xemnas?" Axel indicated where the Organization's leader had previously stood. "The guy you just saw. He's their leader. Got it memorized? X-E-M, N-A-S."

Goofy was a bit confused. "Organization XIII wants to get rid of the Heartless?" Axel chuckled. "What, Alex didn't tell you yet?" All eyes turned to Alexander. Alex sighed and pointed at Sora's Keyblade. "Every Heartless slain with the Keyblade releases a captive heart. That's what the Organization is after."

"Don't forget the Lockshield, Alex," Axel added. "You aren't exempt." Alexander said nothing to that effect, instead saying, "I told them the rest of the info, except in pieces."

The trio considered this for a moment. Then they began to recall Alex's first big explanation back in Yen Sid's tower. _They think that if they achieve putting together Kingdom Hearts, they'll be rewarded with hearts of their own._

It all fell into place. "Then that means..." Donald muttered. "With the hearts released by the slain Heartless..." Sora added. "They'll create Kingdom Hearts and get hearts of their own!" Goofy finished.

Sora suddenly realized something. "You... you're the one who tried to kidnap Kairi!" Axel grinned. "Bingo. The name's Axel. Got it memorized?"

"Where is Kairi?" Sora demanded. Axel suddenly looked downcast. Sora got desperate. "Please. Just tell me!" Axel sighed. "Look, about Kairi... I'm sorry."

"Axel!" a voice none of them wanted to hear barked. A dark portal appeared in front of the quartet, and there stood Saïx. "Uh-oh!" Axel mumbled, disappearing into his own portal. Sora tried to charge forward, but Saïx stopped him. "We'll ensure he recieves the maximum punishment," he assured Sora.

Alexander just stared at Saïx. If Goofy's account rang true, this was the same Nobody who had kidnapped Kairi a short while ago. Alex's grip on the handle of his shield tightened. The first Organization member he had encountered had gotten in his way again.

"I don't care about any of that!" Sora yelled desperately in response. "Just take me into the realm of darkness, okay?" Alex almost heard Saïx make an amused grunt. "If it's Kairi you're worried about," Saïx stated, "don't. We're taking very good care of her."

"Take me to her," Sora pleaded. Saïx almost seemed surprised. "Is she that important to you?" Sora nodded. "Yeah. More than anything." Saïx wasn't convinced. "Show me how important."

Sora thought about it for only a moment. He got down to one knee, and got ready to fully grovel. But then Roxas decided to speak. **_Don't, Sora! He's not going to take you to Kairi no matter what you do! He just wants to make you angry so that you'll destroy more Heartless!_**

Sora immediately got up into a fighting stance. "You rotten...!" Saïx didn't seem fazed by this development at all. "Are you angry?" he asked. "Do you hate me? Then take that rage, and direct it at the Heartless." He snapped his fingers, and four Armored Knights appeared behind him. The quartet got into a fighting stance.

Saïx's gaze rose to the sky. "Pitiful Heartless, mindlessly collecting hearts. And yet they know not the true power of what they hold. The rage of the Keyblade and the Lockshield releases those hearts. They gather in darkness, masterless and free... until they weave together to make Kingdom Hearts. And when that time comes, we can truly, finally exist." Alex shuddered. The more he heard of Saïx, the more the Nobody suggested a psychotic.

"What in the world do you think you're prattling on about?" Maleficent demanded, appearing in green flames behind the quartet. "Kingdom Hearts belongs to me! The heart of all kingdoms, the heart of all that lives. A dominion fit to be called Kingdom Hearts must be **my** dominion!"

Alex panicked. "Maleficent, no! No more Heartless!" Maleficent was outraged. "I do not take orders from you!" She raised her hands to the sky, and Soldier Heartless surrounded Saïx. Joumae was dumbfounded. **_Soldiers?_** he croaked. **_Against Armored Knights and Dusks? Are you nuts?_**

Saïx also saw the flaw in Maleficent's plan. "Fool..." He snapped his fingers again, and Dusks appeared which immediately beat the Soldiers. Sora gasped as the Dusks turned toward them. He flinched, but then saw Maleficent standing between the quartet and the Nobodies. A green aura surrounded Maleficent for a few seconds. Then she spread her arms out, and a wall of green flame separated the two groups. "While I keep these creatures at bay, you devise a way to vanquish them – forever!"

"Maleficent!" Sora mumbled surprised. Maleficent almost groaned as the Dusks started to pile onto her. "Do not misunderstand me. I shall have my revenge on you yet." The rest of the Dusks forced her down. "Maleficent!" Sora shouted this time. "Leave! Now!" the witch ordered. "I don't take orders from you!" Alex retorted. He stepped forward, but Donald stopped him. "Alex! Come on!"

"But... what about..." Sora muttered. He looked again. The wall of flame had disappeared, and the Dusks were merely piling over themselves now. Maleficent was out of sight.

Saïx was all business again. "Now then. Where did we leave off?" He snapped his fingers once more, and the Dusks were replaced by Armored Knights. Sora did a take, but quickly got into his stance as the Heartless surrounded them again.

"Darn Heartless," Alex muttered. "They only pick the side of the person who's strongest. Bad for us, because it turns out the strongest Heartless controller here is the Nobody." Saïx waved his arm; the signal to attack. Two Armored Knights closed in, but they were quickly defeated by Alex and Sora. Two crystalline hearts floated up into the air.

Saïx had something of a grin on his face. "Yes, Sora! Extract more hearts!" He disappeared into the darkness once more. The hearts above them also faded into the darkness.

This did not escape Sora's notice. "No! The hearts!" He blocked the sword of an Armored Knight, but didn't counterattack. None of them did. They didn't know what was the right thing to do anymore. "Maybe all we've done..." Sora muttered. "Maybe it was all for nothing. What am I supposed to do if I can't use the Keyblade?" Alexander was having similar thoughts.

"Imbeciles! You can't be trusted to do anything!" Maleficent's voice echoed over the Dark Depths. A pool of darkness appeared beneath the quartet's feet, and they all fell into it.

* * *

Alexander slowly got up and surveyed his surroundings. Everything was pitch black. Everything. With the only exception of themselves. There wasn't even a visible floor. Sora, Donald, and Goofy came walking toward him. "What's this place?" Goofy asked.

"It must be the Realm of Darkness!" Sora exclaimed. He started looking around frantically. "Kairi! Riku!" But no one else was in sight. Or at least, the first look around. Donald noticed someone. It was a guy in a black coat holding a white box. "Who's there?" Donald demanded, running toward the figure. The black-hooded man disappeared, but left the box. Donald picked up the box and looked it over.

"Are ya sure you wanna open..." Goofy started as Donald lifted the lid, "...that?" Inside was a light blue ice cream and a photo. Donald picked up the photo and passed it to Sora. Alex heard a sharp intake of breath of Roxas's line. "This is Roxas with the gang at Twilight Town," Sora decided, repeating his Nobody's statement that followed.

Donald waved the ice cream around, then decided to take a taste. Goofy started again. "Are ya sure you wanna eat..." Donald took a taste. "...that?" Donald did a take. "Salty... No... sweet!" As he smiled with glee, the ice cream started to glow and float, a familiar light encompassing it. Sora's Keyblade appeared in his hand. A bright flash occurred as Sora opened yet another gate.

* * *

Cloud and Leon looked down on the Great Maw. For now, the Heartless had been warded off. Suddenly, a bright light shone from the end of the Maw. Leon immediately became concerned. "Sora! Donald! Goofy! Alex!"

"Relax," Cloud scolded him calmly. "Those four aren't going down that easily." Cloud turned around and started walking away. "The Keyblade and the Lockshield's chosen ones... They're lucky kids."

Leon stared at the pillar of light that had just appeared. "See you soon."

* * *

The quartet were back in the gummi ship. "I guess help sometimes comes from strange places," Sora admitted. Donald nodded vigorously. "You bet!" Sora immediately became solemn. "What if the Heartless cause trouble again? I can't use the Keyblade; that'll only help Organization XIII."

Goofy shrugged. "Well, Sora, I think you hafta use your Keyblade if we're going to get through this at all!" Alex sighed and nodded. "Goofy's right. We don't have a choice in the matter." He stared at the paths before them. "Let's go check on the worlds. The Heartless and Nobodies are probably up to some grand new scheme." Sora nodded and started cruising toward the Land of Dragons again. Alex smiled, knowing that they were starting on the second half of Kingdom Hearts II.

* * *

**Disclaimer: I only own Alexander, Joumae, and the Lockshield. Every other element of this story belongs to their respective owners. Namely Square-Enix and Disney.**


	25. Halfway Special: Author's Notes

**Halfway Special  
Author's Notes**

Hello, this is Newbie-Spud. I'd like to thank you in advance for reading up to this point so far. I'm generalizing, of course (If you haven't read all of The Interference so far, and just skipped ahead to this one, then go back and read the last 24 chapters!). But I'd like to thank all of you that reviewed and read my story. It's not over yet, but I'm glad to know that a few people are paying attention.

In any case, you might be wondering why I'm writing a chapter like this. Well, unlike some stories, I've stayed away from writing the little "author's notes" before and/or after a chapter. In fact, the only thing I mention outside the story is the mandatory disclaimer. If you want to just continue reading the story and avoid any possible spoilers (though I doubt there's any), you can ignore and skip this chapter altogether.

But we're halfway through the story now. I want to take a _small_ break and just kind of chat a little bit. Some stuff about my story. Behind the scenes, if you will. I know everyone has their own opinions of the story and the elements thereof, but these are my opinions of what I've created so far. Enjoy!

* * *

Self Insertion: A common cliché

Most of the story has been kind of spur-of-the-moment. I came up with it on the spot and worked with it. In fact, the title of this fan fiction, "The Interference", came along after I had written the first chapter. Spur-of-the-moment, indeed.

This type of story is a rather common cliché. A random fan stuck in the game. There are quite a few stories like it in most categories of this site. For me, at least, this genre came from the question, "What would **I** do if I was in (Insert game/anime/etc. here)?"

I read quite a few stories of this genre before writing fan fiction. And I found quite a few clichés in the stories I found. Here are a couple of the general ones.

For the girls stuck in the game, they end up going crazy and explaining everything to the main characters right off the bat and getting excited by seeing characters they recognized and blah blah blah. Crazy fangirls. At least starting out, anyway.

For the guys, the scenario goes like this. The game turns out to be a hidden reality, and now this male OC (original character) has this big ol' destiny and his own Keyblade. This big ol' destiny usually obscures the real main characters of the game (Sora, Donald, Goofy, Riku, Kairi, etc.), who become little more than comic relief.

In fact, I noticed that there were far more _female_ OCs than male. Probably because the crazy fangirl cliché is rather fun to write. I'll admit that it is if you're into purely random stuff.

I did not really like those clichés. I did not really want to _write_ those clichés. Hopefully, I've generally avoided them. Any readers with constructive criticism will prove me wrong if they need to.

I think I've ended up with a balance. I have a guy stuck in the game who hopefully doesn't completely overlap the real main characters.

* * *

Being an Interference

Again, the whole Interference concept is something I made up on the spot. I had to ask myself: What would be a "logical" reason for someone from reality to be in the game? And here I am with an Interference.

The ethics of being an Interference are similar to the science fiction elements of time travel. You know what's going to happen in advance. If you change things too much in the past, you'll end up with a completely different ending. That's the philosophy I have Alexander use. It makes sure that I can stay close to the main storyline, but still shake things up a little bit.

* * *

Alexander

For most writers of any medium, all of their characters are a part of themselves. Each individual character in a novel is most likely a representation of a trait that the author has.

Like any good self insert story, Alexander is technically myself. He's the embodiment of what I would do if I was in one of my favorite games. Actually, he's a bit more serious and collected than I am. The real me would probably slip up quite a bit more often. So he's not completely me, just what I'd hope to do.

And I haven't really made him a leader of the group. He's just kind of at the sidelines, giving advice from time to time. He does take the lead in boss fights because I like to describe the reaction commands. But he has taken the role of more like an observer than anything else. Lately, though, his attitude has become more assertive and responsible. He's becoming part of the story now. Ever since the Kairi in Twilight Town incident, actually.

That's the great thing about original characters. Once you develop them enough, they write themselves.

* * *

Details, details, details!

I think I've done an okay job of description in my story so far. It's just me talking, but I'd like to say that I did well. Other people might say otherwise.

But it doesn't come without studying a lot. Frankly, I can't write the whole story of Kingdom Hearts II by memory. I actually had to play the game again. I'm playing the game right now at the same rate as I write this story. It allows me to get a fresh look at what happens, so I remember as much as possible when I'm writing a scene.

* * *

The Lockshield

Ah, yes, the Lockshield. Unlike the other parts I've created in this story, this is an idea I've had for a while. Years, even. I've had it ever since I had replayed the first Kingdom Hearts. It's been so long that I don't quite remember how I came across it. Though I think the deduction went something like this:

A Keyblade. Well, what would be the opposite of that? The opposite of a key is a lock, and the opposite of a blade is a shield. Key-Blade becomes Lock-Shield. Lockshield. The opposite of the Keyblade.

The common cliché of a guy in the game is for him to have a Keyblade. Well, I didn't want to have that, now did I? So I stuck Alexander with my Lockshield idea. Works out perfectly. It sounds original, at least. Better yet, it looks like no one else has published this idea. Prove me wrong if I am, please.

* * *

Joumae

And then there's Joumae. Another improvisation. I actually had to look up the word "joumae" in an English-Japanese dictionary. Yes, "joumae" is indeed the Japanese word for "lock", for those of you that didn't bother to check me for accuracy.

There is kind of a darker side of me in real life, just like Joumae is for Alexander in the Interference. The side that is rude, sarcastic, and likes to make fun of anything he can. Well, I kind of needed to exercise that side. I don't know how I did it, but I ended up being able to exercise it through Joumae.

It was implied in the game that the Keyblade has a will of its own. With my Lockshield idea, that means that the Lockshield has a will of its own. Well, I created Joumae as the representation of that will. I already had an explanation.

Joumae doesn't talk all that much. All he really does is make witty comments. Besides, the last thing I need is for him to extend what is already a long conversation. Heck, by the time I finished writing Monochrome Dreams, I was holding my head in my hands, muttering, "Great, I just made things _even more complicated_."

* * *

Roxas and Kairi

And while we're on the topic of even more complicated, let's talk about Roxas and Kairi, a couple of recent additions (and subtraction). I had introduced Roxas early, so I had to have Sora actually meet Roxas earlier. But what about after the little battle at the Station of Awakening? How do they communicate then? I had to resort to a cliché here: by thoughts. Just like Joumae and Alex do.

As for Kairi, I thought it would be cool to prevent her from getting kidnapped by Axel in Twilight Town. That's what I could do. Unfortunately, what I can do and what I can write are two different things. And when I rescued Kairi, I realized that I had to write lines for her too, _along with Joumae and Roxas_. Writing new lines like that would've worn me out before the end of the story and would have probably confused my readers.

So I let her get kidnapped later. I dropped her off near the end of the big battle at Hollow Bastion. That reduced the number of **seven** characters to write for to **six**. That's a lot easier, especially because a girl like Kairi is hard to write lines for in a fighting environment like Kingdom Hearts II.

Besides, there are a few in-game consequences if I had chosen to keep Kairi. For one thing, she probably wouldn't have met up with Naminé. For another, the group probably couldn't have gotten into the Castle That Never Was in the first place. (Watch that scene again where Sora makes a bridge to the castle. You'll see what I mean.) And lastly, there was slightly less of a chance that they would have met Riku. So I left her. Sorry.

* * *

Another Half

Well, thanks to everyone who was read, reviewed, and watched me ramble on in this chapter. Remember, these notes were **my **opinions; they don't have to be yours. Anyway, you still have the second visits to read! Thank you so far, and read on!


	26. Fields Of Honor

Chapter 25  
Fields Of Honor

The quartet cruised toward the Land of Dragons. Alex stretched. They had been in Hollow Bastion for quite a while. And the thousand Heartless battle had been a pain in the neck. He was glad to be out and about again.

A silence had descended on the ship. In the amount of time they had been in Hollow Bastion, they had learned about Ansem the Wise and his apprentices, as well as the truth about Xehanort's Heartless and Nobody, and Organization XIII's plan. And on top of that, Kairi had been kidnapped. All was not well.

"Alex," Donald began. There was an obvious edge to his voice. "If there's anything else we should know in advance, tell us a bit sooner." Alex chuckled, but it was forced. "Sure thing. But that was the bulk of it."

Alex sighed. Now that the showdown at Hollow Bastion was over, his guilt was free to haunt his mind. He still blamed himself for letting Kairi get kidnapped by Saïx. He had left her behind when Goofy was knocked out, and the Nobody had been free to abduct her. Now she was being held hostage by Organization XIII.

He held his hand out, and the Lockshield appeared in inky black smoke and rested in his hand. The opposite of the Keyblade, with similar powers and properties. When the Keyblade defeated a Heartless, a heart was released, which Organization XIII immediately stole. Alex's Lockshield wasn't exempt. He was being indirectly controlled by the Nobodies as well. Though that wasn't exactly a surprise. Xemnas, the Organization's leader, had apparently become aware of the game Kingdom Hearts II.

"We're here," Sora announced cheerfully, abruptly breaking the others' thoughts. "The Land of Dragons again."

* * *

The quartet appeared in the village. It was still as burnt and barren as they remembered it to be. They started walking through it, trying to find anything recognizable. Frankly, they had no idea what to do. But it was worth a shot anyway.

"I wonder how everybody's doin'?" Goofy asked, speaking for all of them. Donald stopped, noticing something ahead. "Look!" Everyone else stopped and followed the duck's gaze. Just beyond the rubble in front of them was a guy in a black coat. His hood was up, so they couldn't see his face. The man looked back at them, stared for a second, then started running toward the mountain path.

"Wait!" Sora yelled, starting to chase the hooded man. Suddenly, from behind them came a familiar voice. "Sora!" Everybody turned back and saw Mulan coming toward them. She stopped and caught her breath, apparently having been running for a while.

"Mulan, hey," Sora quickly greeted her, wanting to get down to business. "No time to talk. We gotta catch that guy!" Mulan stood up straight and started walking forward. "I'm following him, too!" she stated.

Donald smirked. "Then let's go!" They all started running up the mountain.

* * *

The five of them followed the man in black to the summit. Or, at least, they had been led by that guy to this place. The man in question was nowhere to be found.

Mulan took a good look at their surroundings. "Looks like he got away," she finally admitted. Goofy glanced at her. "How come you're after somebody from Organization XIII?"

"What is that?" Mulan asked, not familiar with the Organization. "The guy in black," Sora explained. "One of the bad guys!" Donald added.

"I knew it!" Mulan exclaimed, placing her hands on her hips. "There's a rumor in the Imperial City about a spy in black, lurking in the mountains. I'd been up here tracking him, but when you arrived, I lost him."

"Oh," Alex grunted sympathetically. There wasn't really much else to say. Goofy lowered his head. "Sorry!" he apologized, feeling incredibly guilty. Mulan smiled. "Don't apologize." She looked around again. "But I do wonder where he went."

They heard a soft rumbling sound. It was rather familiar. Mulan and Alexander looked up at the hill above them, where they had faced down Shan-Yu and his army of Rapid Thruster Heartless previously.

The rumbling became more intense. At the top of the hill, small shapes began to line up at the top. They immediately recognized it. It was another army of Rapid Thrusters. Donald rolled his eyes. "Again?" he mumbled in resignation. Alex glanced at the wizard. _I was about to say that,_ he thought to himself. Joumae laughed. **_Gotta be quicker about it next time, Alex._**

The Rapid Thrusters charged toward them. Everyone brought out their weapons. "Okay," Sora decided, "first things first!" The whole group charged, but Sora stopped after a couple steps. Alex noticed this and stopped also. The other three kept on running. Sora and Alex turned back to see the man in black from before.

Sora pointed his Keyblade at the man. "Hey! You! Quit sneaking around!" Alex bashed a couple of Rapid Thrusters that were right behind Sora. They were stuck between this Organization guy and the Heartless army.

Some kind of dark sword appeared in the guy's hand. Alex's breath caught in his throat when he saw it. He'd seen it far too many times before in Chain of Memories. And this guy was using the right stance for this weapon to be used. It was the Soul Eater. "Riku..." he breathed. Sora's eyes widened slightly, but he made no comment.

The fight was rather half-hearted. Sora and Alex mainly focused on the Rapid Thrusters Riku barely even fought them. Often, he just stood there and took their attacks. But when he did move, his attacks were laced with darkness rather than the usual Nothing Threads of the Nobodies, which confirmed Alex's suspicion. Riku's dark powers gave him wide and long-ranged attacks, knocking Sora and Alex back and destroying a few of the Heartless around them. The battle went on and on like that, with no certain victor.

* * *

Sora lowered his Keyblade. All of the Heartless were gone. He turned back to the man in black. He shrugged and ran off again. Sora ran after him, but stopped as the guy rounded the corner. "That guy..." Sora muttered. "No... Why... would he?" He stretched a hand forth and took another step. "Riku?"

Donald, Goofy, Mulan, and Alexander approached Sora. Donald looked up at Sora. "Are you okay, Sora?" he asked worriedly. Goofy looked around. "Did ya get 'im?"

"Hmm..." Sora mumbled, coming out of his thoughts. "Oh – he's gone," Sora muttered.

Donald jumped in surprise. "What? You lost him?" he shouted irritably. Sora and Mulan exchanged looks, then they all got back to business. "Anyway..." Alex said with a sigh. "What now?"

Goofy thought about it. "I think that we better get rid of all the Heartless first." Donald nodded his approval. A moment later, the whole mountain started to shake and rumble, nearly throwing the five of them off their feet. The shaking only lasted a few seconds, but they were left bewildered. "What was that?" Mulan asked, looking around almost nervously. "Come on, we better get off the mountain."

Sora nodded. "Okay." They all walked back the way they came, but Sora couldn't help but steal a glance at the clearing again, trying to see if something or someone was there.

* * *

As soon as they were back at the Ridge area, the rumbling started up again. Alex looked up at a hill to the side, where something big just flew out of the snow. Looking close, Alexander saw that it was a huge dragon Heartless with spikes all over the top, big wings, and four pairs of cymbal-like appendages on the underside. "It's a Storm Rider Heartless!" Alex yelled.

The Storm Rider flew away from them and from the mountain, heading for a familiar structure in the distance. "It's heading for the city!" Mulan exclaimed, pointing for emphasis. "We've got to warn Shang!" With no further words between them, they all resumed running down the mountain path, hoping to reach the palace before the Heartless did.

* * *

Sora and the gang ran into the imperial square. The square was empty; there wasn't a single Heartless in sight. "Huh?" Sora mumbled. "It's all clear."

It was at that moment that four Bolt Towers and an Assault Rider Heartless appeared in front of them. Alex summoned his Lockshield. "As usual, one of us has to speak far too soon!" he groaned. The rest of them brought out their weapons. Alexander regarded the Heartless quickly. These particular types were powerhouses, and they didn't have spare time to formulate a strategy for these things. So they went with the first least time-consuming idea.

"Light!" Sora shouted. His head and limbs snapped back, and light shot out from his garments. When the light faded, Donald and Goofy were nowhere to be seen. Sora's clothes were now a bright gold. He held two Keyblades, though "held" is a loose term, for the one near his right hand was floating and spinning, suspended by some kind of flickering gold light. This was Master Form.

Sora jumped forward and attacked. It seemed that Master Form specialized in aerial attacks. Plenty of spinning and swiping at enemies there. For the finisher, Sora started spinning around in place in the air, and a wide halo of light encircled him. All the enemies within that halo got sucked into some kind of vortex and spun around Sora. Then Sora did a 360° slash with one Keyblade, defeating all of the Heartless within his little vortex. Sora landed on the ground and reverted. Donald and Goofy reappeared. Donald was still nauseous and Goofy was still fine. After giving Donald a chance to recover, they ran for the palace gate.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy ran up to the gate and crashed into it. They pushed it and pulled the handle as hard as they could, but the gate wouldn't budge. "Open up!" Sora yelled, banging on the door. Mulan looked around for an alternate route. There was a climbable pillar that they could use to enter the building from the rigging above. "Over here!" Mulan shouted.

Alex, knowing the plan in advance, jumped onto the pillar and hugged it, then started climbing his way to the top. With his fear of heights, he didn't bother to look down. He assumed that Goofy, Donald, Sora, and Mulan were making their way up as well. Alex reached a piece of the rigging near the ceiling that the pillar was supporting. He jumped to it and hung there for a second. He then inched his way to the wall of the gate, seeing a hole that led to the antechamber. Alex swung a bit, then jumped into the hole and into the antechamber.

* * *

The five of them dropped down to the floor. Though Donald stumbled a little bit on the landing, they had all made it through okay. There was a man in black near the door to the throne room. Before Sora could do anything, Alex walked forward and shouted, "Braig!" Sora, Donald, and Goofy exchanged confused looks.

The man flinched, and slowly turned to face them. He slowly lifted his hood, revealing the head of Xigbar. "Haven't had anyone call me that in a long while," Braig's Nobody remarked. Four Sniper Nobodies appeared around the five fighters, which turned to face the enemies. When Alex looked again, Xigbar was gone. Or so he thought. He turned around to see the Nobody sneaking out the front door.

**_Nevermind him. Focus on the Snipers!_** Roxas scolded him. But it was a good thing, because one of the Nobodies had just fired a bolt at him. Using the Lockshield's power to use his enemies' abilities against them, Alex warped in front of the round and whacked it back toward the Nobody. It was a direct hit, and the Sniper dissipated. Sora also tried the technique a few times. The Snipers were defeated rather quickly.

They all ran through the doors to the throne room, arriving rather unceremoniously. The Emperor was sitting in his throne, and Shang was standing beside him. Alex had the grace to bow and mutter, "Er... hello, Your Excellency." He was still getting used to formalities. Mulan sighed in relief. "It seems this place hasn't been attacked yet."

"Not quite," the Emperor disagreed. "There was a man in black here." This surprised all of them. "The Captain fought with the man, but was defeated." Shang squirmed for a moment, then turned to the Emperor. "To my dishonor."

Sora nodded passively. "Did this man happen to give a name?" The Emperor shook his head. "He kept his hood up the whole time. He was rather rude."

"Rude?" Sora repeated. "Then it **was** Riku!" Alex laughed openly at this remark. Just then, a loud crash resonated through the Imperial city, and the ground began to shake violently. "The Storm Rider!" Alex shouted, before anyone could ask him. "It's here!" He grinned and summoned his Lockshield. "Let's go take it out!"

Donald led the way down the steps, but no one followed yet. Sora had folded his arms, and was in deep thought. "It's a dragon that can fly... How are we supposed to attack it?" he murmured.

"Hmm... A flying opponent," the Emperor thought aloud. "To fight something that can fly, one must fly himself." The quartet gave him a funny look. "Birds know that height means dominancy," His Excellency explained. "If you get high enough, you will find a weakness."

Shang nodded in approval. "In battle, anything can happen. Pay attention to your surroundings, and see if you can find something that will give you an advantage."

Alex chuckled. "Sound advice." Donald stomped a webbed foot on the floor impatiently. "Let's go already!" Mulan nodded. "Right!"

* * *

Mulan heaved, and the huge door slowly slid open. As soon as she had gotten halfway open, the Storm Rider dropped down and roared, startling her. She backed up involuntarily, but Sora put a hand on her shoulder. She nodded, and they all ran out to the square.

The Storm Rider circled them as they brought out their weapons and got into a fighting stance. Once it reached one of the corners of the square, it turned around in place to face them. **_You're kidding..._** Joumae gasped. Everyone else got uneasy expressions as well. The Storm Rider looked like it was ready to charge right at them. It was. And it did, passing right over them and forcing them to dive out of the way.

Alex saw an opportunity. Quickly getting back onto his feet, he started running after the Storm Rider. He dived and got a hold of the Heartless's tail. He stood up and slowly got his balance as the others, one by one, jumped onto the Storm Rider's back. The Heartless rose up into the air, carrying the five fighters with it.

Alex smirked. "This is the Storm Rider's weak point, guys." He walked up to the Heartless's right horn on the top of its head and whacked it as hard as he could. The Heartless roared in pain, and lightning began to shoot down from nowhere at them. The other four scattered, but tried to attack the horn and avoid the lightning the best they could. Goofy wailed as he stumbled after a lightning strike and fell off the dragon Heartless.

"Goofy!" Sora yelled, looking down. Goofy managed to land on his feet; they were close enough to the ground now. But he wasn't getting back up.

The Storm Rider jerked forward. Alex knew what was up. He quickly wrapped his arms and legs around one of the dragon's huge horns. The Storm Rider flew forward, up, and back again in a loop, throwing the others off. Alex let go of the horn as soon as the Heartless leveled out. He resumed bashing the weak horn.

Suddenly, the Storm Rider flew straight up, throwing Alexander off. Alex fortunately landed on his feet, like the others. The Storm Rider landed on the bridge connecting the two parts of the square. Two bright walls appeared on either side of their small area. "Watch out!" Alex shouted to all of them. "Those walls will shock you if you touch them!" The walls began to close in, shocking a certain Donald Duck who had been caught off guard. Everyone kept their distance from the walls after that.

The Storm Rider was forming some kind of electrical energy in front of its head. Seconds after this fact sunk in, a beam of lightning shot across the center of their "arena". Fortunately, none of them had gotten close enough to get hit. The Storm Rider charged for another round, and the walls got as close as they could get. There was still a few feet for them to stand in without getting shocked one way or another. The Heartless fired another beam, then flew up into the air. The walls dissipated.

The Storm Rider positioned itself at one side of the arena. It spread its wings as far as it could, and started sweeping the whole area, flying toward the five of them. There was no way to dodge it, but... "Sora!" Alex yelled.

Sora got the message. He ran toward the Storm Rider, and slid under it right before it collided with him. From there, Sora whacked the dragon's belly with his Keyblade, sending it up into the air. It landed back down on the ground face-first, temporarily stunned for the moment.

Alexander wasted no time. He jumped up to the creature's head, whacked the weak horn a few times, then shouted, "_Blizzara_!" A large cluster of ice crystals fired at the horn, damaging it more effectively than a regular Blizzard spell would've done.

The Storm Rider roared in pain, and flew back up into the air, knocking Alex away from it. It flapped its wings furiously, trying to keep itself up despite the damage it had taken. It failed, and started to fall to the ground... straight at where Mulan was standing. She hesitated, and lost the time she needed to run.

"Mulan!" Shang yelled, running toward her. Shang grabbed Mulan and forced her down, covering her body with his. Fortunately for them, the Storm Rider dissipated into darkness right before it collided with the ground. Sora cheered. "Way to go!" Alex watched the huge dark heart rise into the air from the Heartless's body. Another heart for Organization XIII.

Mulan and Shang looked into each other's eyes. Sora folded his arms, Donald started tapping his foot, and Goofy scratched his nose. Seeing the quartet, Mulan and Shang quickly separated. A plethora of fireworks started going off above the Imperial palace.

* * *

The five companions stood at attention in the throne room once more. "Once again," the Emperor remarked, "you have served China well. It would please me to reward you. What is it that you wish?"

Donald shook his hands together with glee. He was apparently thinking of munny. Goofy's stomach growled. He was apparently thinking of food. Sora thought about it. "Well... You say a guy in black came to see you. What did he say?"

"That is all you request?" the Emperor asked in surprise. Donald and Goofy tried to indicate their requests to Sora. "Yes," Sora replied. The other two sighed and hung their heads. They looked up again to listen.

"Dragons have crossed our lands and left a great web of paths," the Emperor explained. "These dragons wield much power, and they are the source of many gifts to both man and nature." The quartet nodded. "But it would seem someone of evil intent disturbed one of our dragons, and transformed it into what you call a Heartless."

**_So that Storm Rider was once a genuine dragon..._** Roxas mused. "It is my belief that this young man came to warn me of that danger. Then, I could alert and prepare my troops," the Emperor added.

"Did you?" Sora asked. His Excellency chuckled. "I was about to, but he told me the situation had changed." Shang nodded. "He said four 'wise guys' had arrived, and they would take care of things."

Sora did a take. Smiling, he declared, "That's gotta be Riku!" Donald shot a worried glance to Goofy. Goofy asked, "But what's he doin' hangin' out with Organization XIII?"

**_He's not, believe me,_** Roxas commented with a groan. Sora shrugged. "Well, at least I finally know he's okay. That's good enough." Donald nodded after a moment. "Yeah, that's good!"

"Now then, Fa Mulan," the Emperor stated. "Do you have a request?" Mulan was quick to answer, but she stuttered. "I'd like Shang... I-I mean... well... The Captain..." The Emperor feigned impatience, but Alex could tell he was amused. "Yes, yes, my dear. What is it?" Mulan indicated Shang. "Could the Captain have a vacation, please?" Shang was surprised by this.

The Emperor chuckled. "I hardly expected such humble requests." He stood up. "In this case, I'm afraid I must refuse. Captain Li's responsibility is to protect the Emperor. And yet, Mulan..." he added just as she started looking downcast. "Yes?" she said, correcting her posture.

"Would you like to serve alongside him and protect me?" the Emperor asked. "What?" Shang and Mulan mumbled simultaneously. "Two reeds together are stronger than one," the Emperor advised. "But the choice is yours alone," he added. Mulan smiled and bowed. "Thank you, Your Excellency!" Shang walked over to Mulan, who smiled back at him.

Sora smiled, but then started wiping away tears. He was probably thinking of Kairi. Goofy and Donald walked over to him and tried to comfort him. Sora quickly looked away, embarrassed.

Alex, sensing that the request was taken care of, spoke up. "Um, Your Excellency? I have a request." The Emperor turned to him. "Yes, Alexander, what is it?"

Alexander shuffled his feet a bit, then asked, "Do you know of anything about a Keyhole around here?" The Emperor thought about it, then chuckled. "Follow me." Alex followed the Emperor, who led him to behind the throne. There was a loose piece of the carpeting. Alex lifted it up and saw a small keyhole shape in the floor. Alex summoned the Lockshield and held it directly over the keyhole. A bright blue beam shot out from the Lockshield and sealed the keyhole with a loud clicking sound. "There we go," he muttered, standing up straight again.

Suddenly, Mulan's sword flew up into the air. This surprised everyone, including Alex. A halo of darkness appeared around the sword. Alex recognized this, and knew what had to be done. Alex held the Lockshield out in front of him.

All the other people in the room disappeared. Although Alex guessed that, to them, it looked like a flash of light had occurred. A light flashed from the Lockshield, and the shining image of the Heartless emblem appeared beneath his feet. A strange wind started to blow against him as his surroundings were enveloped by another light. He looked around again. He was in the same starry expanse as he had been in at Timeless River. This time, however, it was in color, so he could admire it properly. And what a sight it was.

Mulan's sword pointed up and shot a dark beam into the air, which formed a large keyhole in the space above him. Alex looked into it, and saw the mass of Shadows inching toward the opening. _Oh no you don't!_ he thought. Alexander twirled around the Lockshield a bit and then finally pointed it at the keyhole. A halo surrounded his weapon for a moment, then it closed in and shot out a beam at the Dark Corridor. When it collided, a dark green wall formed itself and covered up the opening. Another light filled up the whole space, and Alex was back in the throne room with the others before he knew it.

"What was that?" Sora asked him. Alex sighed. "That was another Dark Corridor. This place won't have any trouble from the Heartless and Nobodies for a while."

He turned to Mulan and Shang. "Well, I wish you two the best of luck." He paused, then turned to leave. "See ya!"

* * *

**Disclaimer: I only own Alexander, Joumae, and the Lockshield. Every other element of this story belongs to their respective owners. Namely Square-Enix and Disney.**


	27. Dance of the Darling

Chapter 26  
Dance of the Darling

Alexander was feeling rather proud of himself. He had just sealed both the Keyhole and the Dark Corridor in The Land of Dragons. He was finally doing his job. And there's nothing quite so satisfying as realizing that you were doing so.

"We're going in the same order, right?" Sora asked, already piloting the gummi ship toward Beast's Castle. Alex nodded, indicating his agreement.

* * *

The quartet came to the entrance hall once again. In the center was Beast, in a blue fancy suit, pacing and muttering to himself. "Hey, Beast!" Sora greeted him. Beast stopped pacing and turned to face them. Donald looked around, and got a satisfied smile on his face. "No Heartless, and no Nobodies!"

Goofy also looked around. "But we better stay alert, just in case." Sora nodded. "Right!" Beast turned away. "Hmph."

At that moment, they heard soft footsteps on the east wing stairs. It was Belle, in a bright golden dress, smiling at Beast. Beast started walking up the steps to the ballroom doors. "Tonight is very important," he stated. Belle and Beast met on the landing. They bowed to each other, locked arms, and walked into the ballroom.

Goofy looked a bit confused. "Uh, maybe we came at a bad time."

Donald glanced at him. "Well, there's only one way to find out." With that declaration, he started running toward the ballroom doors.

"Donald!" Alex called after him, resisting the urge to slap his own forehead in annoyance. The others ran after the duck.

They found Lumiere and the group looking at Belle and Beast, who were facing each other. It was almost as if they were about to dance. "Now then," Lumiere announced, "Monsieur, Mademoiselle. Please, enjoy the evening." They turned to face the quartet. Sora waved. "And of course," Lumiere added, "our honored guests are welcome, too."

"A welcome indeed," a darker voice remarked from the balcony above. Sora ran forward and looked up. There was an man in a black hood looking down on them. "The Organization!" Sora declared. Alex also looked up at the Organization member. "Dilan!" he shouted.

Xaldin chuckled at being referred to by his original name. "You don't know when to quit." Donald brandished his staff. "Oh yeah! We'll show you!" Beast glared at Xaldin. "Get out!" he roared, charging forward. He accidentally bumped into Belle in doing so. She suddenly looked furious. "Not tonight!"

Xaldin snapped his fingers, and three Dragoon Nobodies appeared in front of the five fighters. Beast got there first, though. He knocked them all aside in a rage, making them dissolve into nothingness. Alex noticed a couple of Dusks and more Dragoons approaching them. Soon, they were surrounded. "I've come to take something you hold very dear," Xaldin muttered. It took Beast a few seconds, but he roared angrily when he realized what Xaldin must have meant.

"Yes," Xaldin declared triumphantly. "Let your anger grow..." He disappeared in a dark portal that quickly engulfed him. Sora looked around at the Nobodies. "Beast! We have to get rid of these guys first!"

The Dragoons jumped up and quickly stabbed the ground with their lances, damaging everything within a few feet of them. Alex's eyes widened. "That technique..." he mumbled. It seemed so simple now. Was this the Learn reaction command? Alex warped to above one Dragoon, and stabbed it in the same fashion as the Nobody had done with his lance. As soon as Alex used the move, he forgot it. He apparently needed to Learn it again.

Stunned by the Jump technique, it didn't move as Sora took advantage of it and slashed it to pieces. Beast took care of the other Dragoons, and Donald and Goofy had taken out the Dusks. Sora looked around. "Where's Belle?" he cried out, seeing that Belle was nowhere to be seen. Was Belle the thing Xaldin said that Beast held very dear?

"Over here!" Belle replied, approaching the five of them. Apparently, she had slipped away during the fighting. Goofy sighed in relief. "Looks like Xaldin didn't steal anything after all," he remarked.

Beast suddenly ran out of the ballroom, looking distressed. Belle chased after him. Alex put his hands behind his head. "Or... maybe Belle isn't the only thing dear to the Beast." Alex could almost see Joumae rolling his eyes. **_Look at you, acting like you don't already know..._**

* * *

The quartet chased Beast and Belle to the Beast's room, where they found him stalking back and forth, often roaring and pounding his fists on the ground. He was wearing his standard clothes now. Belle was confused. "What's wrong?" she demanded. Beast replied with an enraged growl, not really saying much at all. Belle approached him. "Please, calm down!"

"Calm down?!" Beast yelled, making Belle flinch as he wildly turned to face her. "You just had to have a party, didn't you? Don't you know what's happened!?" Sora walked over to them. "Hey. What's with you?" he muttered in a bit of a condescending tone.

"The rose..." Beast replied. "My rose..." Indeed, the table on which the crimson rose had been set was now empty. That must have been what Xaldin stole. "What, that?" Sora asked, not really remembering its significance. "He took it?"

"But surely you can find another rose..." Belle suggested. Needless to say, Beast didn't like the idea. "Silence! You don't know anything!" Sora placed himself between Belle and Beast, his arms spread out to protect her. "That's not fair, Beast," he retorted. "Don't take it out on her. It's not like she stole it!"

Beast finally calmed down, holding his forehead in frustration. Belle seemed sad now. "I'm sorry." Sora waved away the worry. "You don't have to apologize."

"But..." she tried to add, but her voice trailed off.

Beast looked away from them. "Belle... Sora... I want you to leave the castle." Belle gave Beast a surprised look. "Look at me," Beast muttered darkly. "Look. This is what I am." He glanced at Belle. "When you first got here, I tried to change." Then he pulled his hands out from under his cloak, staring at them as if admitting defeat to them. "But I was only fooling myself. I can't be any different. I'll always be a beast. So, I should live like a beast." He turned away from them again. "With no one, alone. Good-bye, Belle."

Belle was nearly heartbroken. "You can't mean that..." Beast slowly walked away toward the window. Sora tried to say something, but Goofy cut him off. "Aw, I think his mind's all made up," he whispered. Sora nodded. "Yeah." He turned to Belle, who was leaving the room. "Look, Belle. Leave this to us. If we can get the Beast's rose back, he'll calm down." Belle glanced at them, then silently walked out of the room.

Alex turned to Beast. "Hey, Beast," he called out to him. Beast sighed. "Leave me alone," he whined. Alex rolled his eyes. "C'mon, you need to hear this. You used to be fearless. You would have given your life to save Belle." Beast didn't say anything. "Don't you know what that meant to us?" Alex continued, gesturing at his comrades.

The trio nodded. "You gave us all courage," Sora agreed. "Hmph, maybe you should have kept some for yourself. I mean, are you really going to throw your happiness away?"

"The rose is your only hope, isn't it?" Alex asked Beast. The rose was the time limit for the enchantress's curse. When the last petal fell from the rose, the whole castle was stuck in the forms they were in now. "Well, it's the only hope for Cogsworth and the others, too. So, don't throw away your last chance."

"Remember what it was like before Belle lived here?" Sora reminded him. This seemed to strike home, because Beast's head rose slightly. "See?" Sora confirmed. "You can't give up. Not now."

"I know one thing," Beast muttered finally. "What?" Sora asked. Beast turned around to face them, a determined, angry look on his face. "This castle belongs to me. Xaldin will never be welcome here."

* * *

Alex figured that Xaldin might be headed for the castle's entrance. If he was really meaning to get away with one of Beast's possessions, then he would need to get out. So they all ran to the entrance hall. Of course, that was the explanation for Beast; Alex already knew that Xaldin was waiting for them there.

"So, Beast... you came after all," Xaldin's voice echoed over the hall. Alex looked up. There was a small balcony above the ballroom doors. Xaldin was standing there, with the rose in its case, one arm wrapped around it. "You had me worried, I was afraid you'd given up for good." Alex laughed. "Funny, Dilan, how every time I see you, there's a few feet of air between us."

Xaldin grunted at the mild rebuke. "Why do you insist on calling us by our original names?"

Alex shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe to prove that I'm not an ignorant fool, like your Superior seems to be," he added, pointing an accusing finger at the Organization member. "What do you guys really want?" Sora demanded.

"...Kingdom Hearts," Xaldin declared after a moment. He lifted his hood, revealing his face at last. "When Kingdom Hearts is ours, we can exist fully and completely. So you see, Beast..." Xaldin explained, waving an arm to summon some Nobodies to the hall, "...that's why we need your Heartless **and** your Nobody!" Everyone got into a fighting stance, ready to take on the Nobodies that surrounded them.

"I think it's time for another Limit," Alex muttered. "Donald!" The duck stared at Alex for a second, then seemed to get the idea. Donald jumped onto Alex's back, pointed his staff at the Nobodies and shouted, "_Comet_!" Out of nowhere, several explosions happened right on top of the enemies, sending them up into the air. Donald did this several times, while Alex slashed and bashed the Nobodies that the Comet spell missed. Though it was rather difficult with Donald on his back, casting spells. At the end of it, Donald jumped up and waved his staff wildly. A ring of explosive energy burst in a circle around Alex, defeating the rest of the Nobodies.

Alex glared at the entrance, where Xaldin now stood. The Nobody glanced at them, grunted indifferently, and walked through the door, closing it behind him. The five fighters chased him immediately.

* * *

The quartet and Beast looked around the garden. Xaldin was nowhere to be found. Goofy looked up at the exterior of the castle. His gaze eventually stopped at the balcony of Belle's room. "Huh?"

Alex looked as well. There was Belle in her normal outfit, sulking on the balcony. She looked down at the garden. Goofy waved at her. Shocked, she quickly backed away from it. Alex couldn't see what happened next, but Belle appeared a few moments later, smiling with the rose in her hands. "Look! It's the rose!" she called down to them.

This caught all of their attention, especially Beast's. Alex panicked. "Belle! It's a trap!" Just as he said that, Xaldin put a hand over Belle's mouth and grabbed her. Then he jumped, soaring all the way over the gate and landing on the bridge ahead. **_Be quicker next time!_** Roxas shouted at Alex.

"Hurry!" Sora ordered. Beast led the way, bursting through the door to the bridge as they chased after Xaldin. Alex immediately summoned his shield. This was no easy fight.

Beast stopped and glared at the Nobody. Xaldin held the rose within one arm, and a worried Belle in the other. "You!" Beast yelled. "Get out of my castle, now!"

Xaldin smirked. "With pleasure," he replied, "but I'd rather travel light... What shall I leave behind? Belle? Or the rose?"

It took Beast a few seconds. "Belle!" he finally answered, charging toward Xaldin again. Xaldin prepared himself for an attack... But what happened next surprised everybody. Belle broke free of Xaldin's grip, jabbed him in the stomach with her elbow, and got away with the rose! "Good one, Belle!" Sora complimented her as she passed by. Belle escaped to the garden, and Beast continued charging at Xaldin. He swiped at the Nobody, who jumped back.

When he landed, Xaldin raised his hands to the air. Six miniature tornadoes appeared around him, sparking with electricity. After a few moments, the tornadoes dissipated, leaving six silver lances floating there. The lances disappeared in a flash, and Xaldin caught three of them as they fell down to him. The others were caught in the sphere of wind that surrounded him. He wasn't called the Whirlwind Lancer for nothing.

Alex charged forward first. As soon as he got close enough, a green barrier of wind surrounded Xaldin, which damaged Alex when he touched it. Alex staggered back, trying to remember what to do about it. Sora also tried to attack, but was hindered by the barrier. Donald got an idea. "_Thundara_!" he yelled. A bolt of lightning shot down and hit Xaldin, doing a bit of damage. But they couldn't defeat an Organization member with mere Thunder spells. They needed a strategy.

Before Alex knew it, Xaldin was right above him, bringing the lances down on him, in the same fashion that his Dragoons did. This time, Alex tried to Learn the technique as much as he could. When Xaldin was finished, Alex used the Jump ability and brought his shield straight down on the Nobody. The green barrier dissipated under the pressure. Alexander Jumped again, damaging Xaldin even more.

With the barrier gone, they were free to attack him. Sora's head and limbs snapped back, and light shot out from his body. Donald and Goofy disappeared. He was using a Drive. Unfortunately, something went wrong. Darkness surrounded and flowed from Sora's body, and his Keyblade disappeared. His hands were clawed, and he was in a rather strange stance. This was Sora's Anti Form.

Alex stifled a groan in spite of himself. For some reason, Drives never worked properly when fighting Organization members. They always got Anti Form. Perhaps it was the excessive darkness that seemed to follow these Nobodies around like the plague. Who knew?

Sora charged forward. But Xaldin was ready. He formed a chain with all six lances and spun it around, hitting Sora a bunch of times. Because Sora was in Anti Form, the damage he took was nearly double the norm. Xaldin followed through with a combo, slashing Sora a few more times. Sora couldn't take it. He reverted from the Form and collapsed to the ground. Donald and Goofy appeared next to him, equally stunned. Alex gasped. It looked like Sora had... fainted. Like they had lost the battle. Was this it? Was it over? _NO!_ he thought. _I'm not giving up!_

As soon as that thought crossed his mind, he saw something drop down and whack Xaldin. It was a short fellow with a gold Keyblade. "Well hiya, Alex!" Alex smirked. They had just been saved by Mickey. Alex charged forward again with new resolve. He wasn't giving up on Sora yet.

Even though Mickey was the King, he couldn't truly hold his own against an Organization member. The main point of Mickey's presence was to charge up his Keyblade's power so that he could revive Sora. So Alexander kept Xaldin busy, while Mickey used his Pearl ability to shoot orbs of light at the Nobody. When each of those Pearl orbs hit, it increased the Keyblade's power by quite a bit. Soon, Mickey was ready. He pointed his Keyblade into the air, and a green light surrounded Sora, who quickly got up and brandished his own Keyblade. Alex looked again, and Mickey was nowhere to be seen.

Xaldin was rather annoyed now. His jumped onto his lances, which formed another chain and started flying around. They stopped at one side of the bridge. Four of the lances were in front at at angle, forming a square at the points. Alex knew what that meant. At any point now, Xaldin would shoot out a blast of wind at the bridge that none of them could dodge, and would hurt them greatly. At least, none of them could dodge normally. But this wasn't just a game anymore, and Alex could improvise.

There were medium-sized statues lining both sides of the bridge at some places. They were roughly somewhat taller than the height of Xaldin's attack, Alex figured. So he climbed on top of one of the statues and stood there, facing Xaldin. The Nobody's lance chain pointed to one end of the bridge, started blasting wind, and slowly panned to the other side. At this rate, the others didn't have a chance to dodge it. So Alex had to improvise again. He jumped up and yelled, "_Strike Raid_!" He threw the Lockshield at the unsuspecting Nobody, who got hit by the attack. The Lockshield reappeared in Alex's hand.

Xaldin staggered, and flew back to the bridge and landed, with his lances at the ready. Unfortunately for him, Beast was ready too. Beast charged at Xaldin and swiped at him, yelling, "Get out!" The attack hit, sending Xaldin flying. Xaldin fell to one knee, and his lances landed in a circle beside him. After a few seconds, the lances disappeared in pillars of light, and Xaldin himself dissolved into darkness and nothingness.

Alex sighed, and fell to his rump. "He's certainly a better fighter than Demyx." He heard Roxas chuckle. **_Of course, but who's surprised? Belle is probably a better fighter than Demyx._** Sora nodded at this. "True."

Alex stood up, and something caught his eye. The gate at the other end of the bridge... there was something behind it. Alex ran up to it and looked through the bars. Sure enough, it was a Keyhole on the ground outside the gate. Alex pointed his Lockshield at it. A blue beam shot out of the shield and into the Keyhole. There was a clicking sound, and the Keyhole disappeared.

* * *

All of them stood in the garden together. Belle and Beast were facing each other, Belle with the rose. Sora, Donald, Goofy, Alex, Lumiere, Cogsworth, Mrs. Potts, and Chip watched from a few yards away.

Belle held out the rose to Beast. "Here. It's yours again." Beast reluctantly took the rose. "Belle..."

Belle looked downcast. "I know. You want me to leave the castle." Beast sighed, and finally muttered, "What matters is... You weren't hurt by Xaldin... You're safe." The quartet and the servants became excited by this development. "And..." Beast continued, "I'm very grateful to you... for bringing the rose back to me. Thank you."

Belle chuckled at the compliment. "It's the least I could do. You've been good to me. And you didn't have to be."

"Listen, Belle..." Beast started hesitantly. Belle replied, "Yes?" Beast tried to say something, but the words got halfway and got stuck. He glanced at the quartet and the servants for support.

"Say it!" Sora urged him.  
"Go on!" Lumiere added.  
"C'mon!" Donald demanded excitedly.  
"You can do it!" Mrs. Potts exclaimed.  
"We have confidence," Cogsworth assured him.  
"Don't be bashful, now," Goofy advised.

Beast slowly faced Belle once more. "Belle, I'd like you to stay... With me... Please?" Belle smiled. She stretched her hand forth, and Beast took it. They got into a ballroom dancing position. "I will," she replied. Beast smiled back.

Lumiere grinned. "Maestro – music!" Beast and Belle started dancing to a peaceful tune that came from out of nowhere. Alex did his best to tune it out. Sora chuckled. "Hey, did you see the look on Belle's face when she grabbed that rose?"

"Huh?" Donald mumbled. "Yep," Goofy agreed, "she sure was havin' fun, all right." Lumiere nodded. "She is rather unique, isn't she?" Mrs. Potts smiled. "Always ready for a little adventure." Cogsworth sighed. "The two of them do seem made for each other."

"Yeah, they sure do!" Sora agreed without hesitation. Alex nodded passively. But then he noticed something. Beast had set the rose down, and now it was floating slightly, surrounded by a halo of darkness. Alex held the Lockshield out in front of him.

All the other people in the garden disappeared. A light flashed from the Lockshield, and the shining image of the Heartless emblem appeared beneath his feet. A strange wind started to blow against him as his surroundings were enveloped by another light. He looked around again at the now-familiar starry expanse.

The rose shot a dark beam into the air, which formed a large keyhole in the space above him. Alex looked into it, and saw the mass of Shadows inching toward the opening. Alexander twirled the Lockshield around and then finally pointed it at the keyhole. A halo surrounded his weapon for a moment, then it closed in and shot out a beam at the Dark Corridor. When it collided, a dark green wall formed itself and covered up the opening.

Another light filled up the whole space, and Alex was back in the garden. Another Dark Corridor had been sealed, and the world of Beast's Castle was at peace. At least for a while, anyway.

* * *

**Disclaimer: I only own Alexander, Joumae, and the Lockshield. Every other element of this story belongs to their respective owners. Namely Square-Enix and Disney.**


	28. What Lies Beneath

Chapter 27  
What Lies Beneath

"Nothing like getting the job done," Alex remarked. With a chuckle, he added, "And there's nothing like actually feeling _useful_ for once."

**_What, you think you haven't been useful?_** Joumae scoffed. **_Come on, look at all the explanations you've been giving so far!_** Alex groaned. He knew that Joumae was being sarcastic. Up until this point, he had indeed just been giving explanations, and plenty of them. Sora had been doing all of the important work.

Sora glanced at Alex, having heard the little exchange between Joumae and Alexander. He shrugged, and said, "We're going to Olympus Coliseum next, right?"

Donald looked ahead at the path in front of their gummi ship. "Looks like that's our only choice."

* * *

The quartet found themselves in the Underworld once again. Sora looked around and saw that the entrance was empty. "No Heartless and no Nobodies... not yet, at least." 

Across the lake next to them, there was a dome-like structure in the distance. "What's that?" Donald asked.

"The Underdrome," a voice next to them answered. It was Auron.

Sora folded his arms. "The Underdrome?" he asked, not recognizing the name in the least. Alex, however, recognized the name crystal clear, the memory accompanied by a sense of dread.

Auron nodded. "Demons fought to the death there – battle after battle. Zeus and the other gods didn't like the senseless fighting, so they locked it up."

Sora was confused. "How did it get **un**-locked?" Auron shrugged, and replied, "Some fool must have broken the seal."

Sora rolled his eyes. "What an idiot."

Alexander grinned. He tapped Sora's shoulder and whispered something into his ear. "**What**!?" Sora screamed. "What do you mean, '**I'm** the idiot'!?" Auron chuckled and turned away. "Hey, wait up Auron!" Sora called after him. "It's been a while! We should catch up!"

Auron grunted. "If you need to follow someone around, you should worry about your friends instead." The four of them glanced at the stairs to the Coliseum. They could see Hercules and Megara walking down them. When they looked again, Auron had disappeared.

The quartet walked over to Hercules and Meg. Hercules smiled weakly and waved. "Hey."

"Herc! You feeling any better?" Sora asked worriedly. Hercules hung his head, and there was no need for further questioning in that regard.

Meg sighed at the gesture. "Well... same routine. Wonderboy here thinks his hero days are over. And Phil thinks it's all in his head."

"Gawrsh, Herc," Goofy remarked. "We know you're a hero!"

"That's right... Blunderboy," Hades' voice echoed through the Underworld. Hades appeared in a puff of smoke at the edge of the lake. "How can you mope on a momentous day like today? The Underdrome's back, and you are going to fill the stands."

Hades paced toward them. "After all, your fans won't settle for anything less than a certified hero." Hercules tried to look serious, but eventually went back to sulking. Hades put a hand on his shoulder. "I mean, if you're not up to it, you could always just, I dunno, **lose**?"

"I bet you'd like that!" Sora retorted.

Hades backed up and faced all of them. "Excuse me? Hey, I'm not a selfish guy. I'm not like those high and mighty **snobs** up on Olympus. I stand for the _masses_! And have I got a _massive_ idea!"

Hades turned around, speaking with great flourish in his monologue. "The games, ladies and gentlemen... are back! Yours truly, Hades – the one and only Lord of the Dead – brings you the ultimate games, to celebrate the re-opening of the ultimate coliseum! We'll finally answer the age-old question: Who deserves the title 'Ultimate Hero'? These games are gonna settle the debate once and for all! The winner reigns supreme. Of what? You guessed it! **The Hades Cup**!"

**_I wonder..._** Joumae murmured, grabbing Alex's attention. **_How long did he practice that speech? _**he continued after waiting for proper comedic timing. Alexander could not suppress a chuckle.

Hades finally turned back to Hercules. "And I assure you that the 'great' Hercules will be there. Otherwise..." He glared menacingly at Megara. "You'll never see your girlfriend again."

"Lowlife!" Sora yelled as Hades disappeared in a puff of smoke. Hades' chuckle echoed over them. "You're too nice, kid."

* * *

The five fighters looked at the tournament chart that was placed to the side once the tournament started. "Who are we up against first?" Hercules asked wearily. 

Alexander looked at their pairing. "We're up against a Heartless team called 'Spin Strike'." He groaned. "Probably has a Morning Star Heartless in it. I hate those."

Goofy pointed at the other side of the chart. "Look! Auron is competing in the Cup too!"

Donald quacked worriedly. "Oh no! That means we might have to fight him in the finals!"

Sora looked back at Hercules. "Well, at least we know we have a true hero on our side!" he remarked, trying to give Hercules some of his pride.

Hercules sighed. "Maybe back then, but now I'm just a wash-"

Sora and Donald cut him off simultaneously. "Cut that out!" Hercules hung his head in dismay.

"Spin Strike" consisted of a Morning Star and some Tornado Step Heartless. The five of them took out the Heartless easily. Hercules was strong despite his depression, but he was worn out easily. When the Heartless had all been destroyed, the five of them found themselves back at the tournament chart. "Let's see... We're up against..." Alex muttered.

Donald did a take at the name. "Wak! 'Bad Alert'!"

"Are they any good?" Hercules inquired.

Sora glanced at him. "Well, they sound 'bad'..." – a pun which sorely tempted Alex to bang his head on something; it was that painful – "but I think we can take them!"

"Bad Alert" was a Crimson Jazz Heartless accompanied by eight Minute Bombs and a Crescendo. Minute Bombs exploded within ten seconds, so they weren't a worry. Alex really hated the Crescendo's ability to heal and call allies, so he focused on that and took it out quickly. And the others ambushed the Crimson Jazz before it could start conjuring fireballs.

"We made it to the finals!" Sora cheered.

Donald was also excited. "One more win and we'll be real heroes!" he shouted, cheering alongside Sora.

Goofy chuckled. "Oh, so that's why you're so happy."

"We can't stay junior heroes forever," Sora agreed.

Alex looked at the arena's entrance. "Auron!" he exclaimed suddenly.

Everyone else looked and saw Auron standing there. For a second, Alex could've sworn he saw a red aura around the warrior as he turned to them. "And you are?" he asked finally.

"Huh? What are you talking about, Auron?" Sora shouted.

Auron didn't reply, instead stating, "I must defeat you and atone for my crimes." With that, he left.

Hercules slowly stood up. "That was your friend, right? I wonder why he didn't recognize you..."

* * *

As soon as they left, the quartet followed Auron into the first chamber of the Cave of the Dead. Sora ran through, but then ducked behind a rock. Donald walked out, but Sora pulled him back quickly. They were eavesdropping on Auron and Hades. 

"Okay, let's review," Hades muttered. "State your crime, prisoner."

"I exist," Auron replied in a monotone. "That is my crime. It is... inexcusable."

Hades was rather pleased. "Ooh, good, very good."

"What's wrong with Auron?" Sora whispered. "He's never acted that way before." Donald quickly shushed him.

Hades turned away, as if in thought. "Okay, so you made one lousy mistake: you exist. But hey, I'm a forgiving guy. You keep your end of our little deal, and I'm willing to overlook a transgression or two."

"I understand," Auron replied. "Defeat Hercules."

Hades nodded with a smirk, and added, "_And_ his meddling friends."

Auron seemed surprised. "What? No, only Hercules."

Hades did a mock sigh. "Oh, don't tell me you've forgotten who's in charge?" He placed a hand firmly on Auron's shoulder, and a small statue of Auron appeared in his other hand. A dark energy flowed from Auron's body and collected in the statue. "Hercules **and** the other four," Hades ordered. "Are we clear?"

"We're clear, Hades," Auron groaned, obviously having no choice in the matter.

"**Lord** Hades," Hades insisted.

"Lord Hades..." Auron repeated.

Hades took his hand off Auron's shoulder. "Good. Now go."

Auron turned around and started walking. Sora ducked behind the rock again. Once Auron passed, he stole a glance at Hades again. He was still holding the statue. "So that's how he's controlling Auron!" Sora deduced. Hades started walking back to his chambers.

Goofy spoke up once Hades was out of earshot. "We'd better try talking to Auron."

Alex was dumbfounded. "Are you sure? Hades just called a hit on us, you know," he pointed out, not exactly what one might call excited by the prospect. "And I'm not feeling chatty with the hitman, personally."

Sora shrugged. "It's worth a shot," he replied, optimistic and ignorant as usual, in Alex's silent opinion.

* * *

Unfortunately, Auron had already boarded the boat to the Underdrome before the quartet could reach him. Sora glared at the boat as it sailed away. 

"What's wrong, Sora?" Hercules asked, coming up behind them.

Sora turned to him and replied, "Auron's in trouble! It's like Hades brainwashed him!"

Goofy nodded. "He's using some kind of a statue."

"You know something? That sounds kinda familiar..." Hercules remarked. He thought about it for a second, then declared, "Hades may be using the statue to hold Auron's free will hostage."

"What do we do?" Donald cried out.

"See if you can find that statue," Hercules answered. "It's gotta be somewhere in the Underworld."

Sora nodded. "Right! I'm on it!"

Hades appeared out of nowhere next to Sora, making him jump. "Tell me you're not thinking of leaving," he mused as he tried to keep a straight face. "You've got a match coming up."

Hercules suddenly got an idea. "I'll fight Auron in the final. One on one," he declared confidently.

"Oh, you will?" Hades remarked. He turned around and started debating with himself.

Hercules whispered to Sora, "I'll draw things out to buy you time." Before Sora could respond, he added, "Just hurry back. I know you can do it!"

"Congratulations! You've got a deal!" Hades announced, turning back toward them.

"Thanks," Hercules replied nonchalantly.

"On one condition!" Hades quickly added. "The Lockshield brat will fight alongside you, and the Keyblader and his trusty friends will have to meet the winner in one final clash, whaddya say?"

Alexander refrained from mentioning that it was two conditions instead of one. "That'll drive the crowd wild..." Hercules said.

"It'd better," Hades replied. "I promised the crowd the event of their afterlives."

Another pun that was painful enough to make Alex's head hurt. But a question luckily drew his attention away from the pun. "So, why do I have to accompany Hercules to fight Auron?" he asked.

Hades smirked. It was a rather evil smirk. "I'm repaying you for that _wonderful_ favor you did for me on your last visit."

All eyes turned to Alex. "You struck a deal with Hades?" Sora whispered. Alex didn't reply.

Alexander and Hercules got on the boat and sailed toward the Underdrome. Alex heard Hades mutter, "Sucker! You know, for me, the rest is smooth sailing." Alex half-expected the boat to hit something at that precise moment, but it sadly wasn't so.

* * *

"Now!" Hades announced. "Let the finals of the Hades Cup... **begin**!" Auron, Hercules, and Alexander stood in the arena. Hades sat in his "throne" above them, anxiously watching. Alex stared at Auron, who still had that blank look of someone who had been brainwashed. It was a rather scary thing to know that your opponent was ready to kill you once he got the chance.

Alex summoned the Lockshield in an inky black smoke. Hercules whispered to him, saying, "Remember... draw it out to buy Sora time." He quickly gestured Hades. "And to entertain him," he added. Alexander nodded, not taking his eyes off Auron, who had rested his sword on his shoulder.

Alex stayed in a defensive stance, waiting for Auron to make the first move. With a shield, defensive would just have to do against an experienced warrior like Auron.

* * *

Sora, Donald, and Goofy meanwhile finally made it to Hades' chamber. Standing on the table was the statue of Auron. "Got it!" Sora shouted. 

Sora ran up to it and grabbed it. Immediately, a strange red electrical energy shot out from the statue and started to electrocute Sora. Goofy tried to drag Sora away, but got shocked as well. "Huh?" Donald blurted, putting a hand on Goofy and ending up with the same result. "What's going on?" he managed to yell.

They began to hear Auron's voice echoing through their minds. _"It is not too late! Let us turn back!" ... "Yes, but I... I cannot accept it." ... "Where is the sense in all this?" ... "But... there must be another way!" ... "Your deaths will mean nothing!" ... "You must live!"_

"I get it," Sora said finally. He stared at the statue in his hand. "This is what belongs in Auron's heart."

Goofy shuddered at the memories that had invaded his mind. "Gawrsh, he musta had a pretty rough life."

Sora nodded. "Yeah... but in the end, that's really what made him stronger."

"Let's give it back!" Donald suggested.

Suddenly, they all heard a familiar sound. The sound of Dusks appearing out of nowhere. The trio brandished their weapons when they saw that they were surrounded by the darn things. "Nobodies?" Sora shouted in surprise. "Where did they come from?"

* * *

Alex jumped back, dodging a swing of Auron's sword, and ducking under another. Auron was quick. Alex considered it a miracle that he was able to hold his own so far. 

Hercules tried to punch Auron, but the warrior simply stepped to the side and slashed down toward the hero. Alexander jumped in the way and blocked the strike with his shield barely. The three of them dispersed again and charged once more for another round.

"Now this is entertainment!" Hades exclaimed. While Alex, Auron, and Hercules battled, Megara and Phil watched from the sidelines with worried looks on their faces.

Alex looked up at Hades for a second at the exclamation. He felt like the plan was going well. Hades didn't suspect a thing. Unfortunately, that second was enough time for Auron to strike. Auron slashed across Alex's lowered guard.

Alex staggered, realizing what had happened. He had been pretty much run through. He dropped to his knees and groaned in pain. There was fortunately no bloodshed in the game, but the attack had been severe enough. Auron continued toward Hercules. Alex watched for a few seconds of agony, then fainted.

* * *

Sora looked back at the window of the chamber. More Dusks were coming in through that way. The trio had cleared out the other Nobodies in the room, but this was getting old fast. "Hey, go away!" Donald shouted as the three of them regrouped and got back into fighting stances. 

The Dusks slowly started to advance toward them. Then, out of nowhere, a Rabid Dog Heartless jumped up and bit down on one of the Dusk's heads. More Heartless appeared and confronted the Nobodies.

Sora stared thoughtfully for a moment. "Not what I had in mind, but I'll take it!"

Goofy nodded vigorously, pointing toward the exit. "We'd better skedaddle!" They quickly made their escape while the Heartless and Nobodies were distracted.

* * *

Hercules rolled out of the way of another attack. As he got back into his stance, his foot brushed against the edge of the arena. He was cornered. And Alexander had fainted, so he couldn't help him at all. 

Auron charged and brought the blade down on Hercules, who caught it with his hands. The two of them pushed on each other for a few seconds. Hercules groaned and dropped to one knee. Hades became excited. "Now! Finish him!" Auron immediately put more force into his push. A few more seconds and Hercules was done for.

"Auron, no!" Sora shouted.'

The trio ran into the arena. All eyes turned to them. "Hey, Auron!" Donald yelled as Sora pulled out the statue. "This belongs to you!" Sora tossed the statue toward them. When it was directly above Auron, it burst into a bright light which descended onto the warrior. Auron's body flashed for a moment, and he dropped the blade next to Hades. Auron had his free will back.

Auron stood up and looked at the trio. "Sora. Donald. Goofy."

The three friends cheered. "Auron!" they yelled, happy that Auron had finally recognized them. They looked at Alex, and their expressions immediately became worrisome. "Alex!" they yelled, running over to him.

Hades turned red for a second. "Why those little–" He stood up, reverting to blue again. "Ugh, prisoner!" he shouted. "What happened to our mutual agreement? I can give you a clean slate, but you gotta work with me."

"Maybe you didn't hear me," Auron calmly retorted. He turned toward Hades. "This is my story, and you're not part of it." Hades turned red in anger once more, and burst into a pillar of flame. Another explosion of flame happened right next to the group, and Hades was standing in the middle of it.

"That's it!" Hades declared. "This game is over. I've played by the rules so far. Okay, I confess! I was hoping Wonderboy and the Lockshield brat would lose..." He glanced at Alex. "...which turned out partially true, but it was still a fair fight. C'mon, is that really so wrong? Huh?"

Donald prodded Alex's body with his staff. After a moment, he shouted, "_Cura_!" A green light surrounded Alexander's body, healing his wounds, but he didn't stir. Sora rolled his eyes, and they all started to laugh. "Really? A fair fight?"

"Laugh, laugh, laugh all you want!" Hades shouted. "Because the laughing is about to stop. Wanna know why?" He paused. "Because now we're gonna play by my rules."

Hades snapped his fingers. The gate behind him opened up, revealing a small ledge with a drop into a green swirling vortex. A river of death, of sorts. They heard Meg scream. Megara disappeared in a puff of smoke where she was, and appeared above the vortex bound by smoky bonds. "Meg!" Hercules yelled. "Hercules!" Meg shouted back, equally distressed.

Alexander also disappeared in a puff of smoke, and his limp body hung over the vortex suspended by smoke right next to Meg. "Alex!" Sora cried out.

"Hey, I warned you right at the get-go," Hades remarked. "You don't compete, you lose the girl." With an evil smirk, he added, "And I think I'll just throw in the Lockshielder to make my point clear to the rest of you." He snapped his fingers again.

The smoke around Megara and Alex dissipated, letting them drop into the vortex below. Hercules charged forward. "No! Meg! Hang on!" He dove into the vortex after Meg.

But Alex didn't fall all the way. Suddenly, his hand grabbed the ledge, and he slowly pulled himself up. He was conscious now. He ran past the surprised Hades, jumped over to the arena, and joined his friends. "Sorry I fainted back there," he apologized nonchalantly. "Auron's definitely more focused than I am." Auron chuckled at the comment. Alex glanced at all of them. "Thanks for the cure, Donald." Alex suppressed a laugh. "And thanks for worrying, Sora." The trio grinned at him.

Hades didn't react. Instead, as the gate behind him closed, he remarked proudly, "It seems Wonderboy has dropped out of the standings." The five fighters got ready. "Well, you still got us to deal with!" Sora shouted.

Hades appeared in a puff of smoke behind them. "Oh, yeah," Hades muttered with glee, turning red. "This is gonna be good."

Sora charged at Hades and slashed at him with his Keyblade, but the attack went right through him. As Sora backed up, Hades turned blue and laughed loudly.

"We can't win!" Sora exclaimed.

"How come?" Donald whined.

"Because it's his Underworld," Auron explained.

"Gee, then how do we beat him?" Goofy asked.

Hades got ready to go red again. But then he heard the gate behind him forced open. He looked, but saw no one there. "I think a true hero should be able to help," a familiar voice declared.

Hades glared at Hercules, who was holding Meg in his arms. "But... you..."

Hercules seemed to glow with an internal light. He had gotten his strength back. "I owe you one, Hades." Pegasus landed next to Hercules, and Sora ran up to him. "I didn't hesitate to give my life for Meg's," Hercules continued. "And then I remembered: A true hero is measured by the strength of his heart." He put Meg down and waved at Sora. "I'll never forget that again."

"Just no more crazy stunts," Sora chided him with a chuckle. Hercules bent down to Sora as if he was telling a secret. "People always do crazy things when they're in love." The quartet exchanged amused glances, and they all started laughing.

"What is so funny, you imbeciles!" Hades screamed as Pegasus rode away with Megara. "How dare you get a happy ending! How **dare** you!"

"How dare we?" Alex repeated. "Well, as far as that goes, I think I deserve a **little** credit." Everyone looked at him. "After all, it's technically because of me that Hades was allowed to go through with this Underdrome plot. And because of that..." he added, pointing at Hades, "Hercules got his strength back, and we have the means to defeat the Lord of the Dead. If I had interfered with Hades' plan at all, this never would have happened."

Sora nodded thoughtfully. "Oh, so that's why you had to strike a deal with Hades."

Hades had just about had it. "Hmph. That's it!" He changed back to red once more and approached them.

"You can't stop a true hero!" Hercules shouted, spreading his hands out. His aura disappeared, and two orbs of light appeared in his hands, staying in the air when he pulled back.

"Sora!" Alex shouted. Sora and Alex stood behind the Aura Spheres. Aiming rather carefully, they whacked the Spheres with their weapons, sending them toward Hades. The unsuspecting Hades got hit by them. He yelled as he was thrown back. When he landed, he looked over himself with a confused look. He had turned blue, and was now vulnerable.

"Now! Auron!" Alex yelled. Auron nodded. They stood together in a sort of Bushido stance. "Know your place," Auron muttered. The two of them slashed horizontally, hitting anything that was around them in a 360° radius. Hades was in that area. Auron and Alex then proceeded to attack Hades with precisely timed and aimed slashes with their respective weapons, all the while staying in their Bushido Limit. At the end of it, they put their weapons together and spun them quickly. The Lockshield and Auron's sword started a whirlwind that dragged Hades in. The wind and the weapons both buffeted the Lord of the Dead.

Hades staggered back, clutching at his heart. He had taken plenty of damage. Sora jumped up and brought his Keyblade down on him. Hades disappeared in a puff of smoke and reappeared on the ledge overlooking the green vortex. Slowly retreating, he muttered, "It's... not over... yet..." Suddenly, he faltered. He was up against the edge of the cliff, and he had lost his balance. Screaming, he plummeted over the ledge and into the green vortex. Alex winced. **_He's not gonna be happy when he gets out of there..._** Roxas muttered.**_ Well, _if_ he gets out of there, anyway,_** Joumae added quietly.

Something caught Alex's eye. Walking over to it, he saw that it was Auron's statue. He picked it up. "Why is this still here?" he asked.

As soon as he said that, it started to float, and a halo of darkness surrounded it. "Perhaps it still has some darkness left in it," Sora suggested.

Alex held out his Lockshield. All the other people in the arena disappeared. A light flashed from the Lockshield, and the shining image of the Heartless emblem appeared beneath his feet. A strange wind started to blow against him as his surroundings were enveloped by another light. He looked around at the starry expanse.

The statue shot a dark beam into the air, which formed a large keyhole in the space above him. Alex looked into it, and saw the mass of Shadows inching toward the opening. Alexander twirled the Lockshield around and then finally pointed it at the keyhole. A halo surrounded his weapon for a moment, then it closed in and shot out a beam at the Dark Corridor. When it collided, a dark green wall formed itself and covered up the opening. Then the whole space lit up, blinding Alex for a moment before he appeared back in the Underworld.

* * *

"What'cha gonna do now?" Donald asked Auron when they reached the Underworld entrance. 

"I lived my life defending others," Auron replied slowly. "But now... there's no one left to protect. Maybe... it's time I shaped my own story."

Sora nodded. "Yeah... you deserve it, Auron – after everything you've been through."

Auron chuckled. "I suppose I should thank you."

Before Sora could make an eventually embarrassing reply, Alex said, "I suppose you should."

Auron shrugged. "I guess I could spare a few words." He thought for a few moments. Then, with something dangerously close to a grin, and his voice dripping with sarcasm, he said, "Thanks for meddling."

The trio faltered. "Hey, what's that mean?" Sora demanded. Auron didn't answer; he instead walked away.

"I'll just take it as a compliment," Alex muttered to himself. "I am an Interference, after all. It's my job to meddle."

* * *

The quartet walked into the night air of Olympus Coliseum. Even the ruins of the old arena looked peaceful compared to the Underdrome. Alex felt almost serene. 

"Thanks again, guys!" Hercules complimented them as they approached. "You're the best."

Donald rolled his eyes, still annoyed by Auron's statement. "Excuse us for meddling..."

"Aw... sounds like somebody's feathers are a little ruffled," Meg remarked. She paused. "I'm kidding. Thank you, Sora, Donald, Goofy, Alex."

"So where you guys headed next?" Hercules asked.

Sora had to think this one through. It was against the rules to break world order unnecessarily. "Aw, you know... You two lovebirds seem to be getting along just fine without us hanging around." At this, Hercules and Meg immediately separated, looking embarrassed.

The quartet faced each other. "Yeah, we gotta go," Donald declared.

"Uh-huh, before we start meddlin'," Goofy agreed with an amused tone.

Alex shrugged. "Meddling and interfering. What's the difference? I could have just as easily been dubbed a Meddler instead of an Interference."

They all chuckled at that. "Right," Sora mumbled.

"Are you turkeys trying to put me out of a job?" Phil yelled at them, running toward them. "If you keep acing every challenge, Champ, who am I gonna train?"

Hercules got serious. "Aw, you can't abandon me now, Phil! I gotta be at the top of my game in case Hades shows up again." Meg smiled at Hercules' words.

Donald suddenly got in Phil's face. "Hey, are we true heroes yet?"

Sora quickly joined him. "Yeah! C'mon, Phil, how about it?"

Phil thought about it for only a fraction of a moment. But he sure pretended to think about it. "Lemme see... Well, you're not wise enough... Not quite... seasoned enough..."

"Okay, okay, we get the hint!" Sora yelled, irritated.

Alex tapped Sora's shoulder. "Cool it, guys. It's not up to him."

Phil nodded. "Kid's right."

Donald hung his head. "Aw, phooey."

"Course if it was, you'd have no problem," Phil remarked, turning away from them as he smiled with pride. "I'd make you all heroes, in a heartbeat!"

Sora and Donald did a take. "Really?" Sora shouted.

"Say it again!" Donald pleaded.

"On second thought," Phil grumbled quickly, "if those are your 'hero' faces, you still got a lotta work to do." He quickly started stomping away.

Donald ran up to him. "Hey, what do you mean?" he demanded.

Phil avoided Donald's gaze. "Go away!" he retorted, running now.

"Phil!" Sora shouted, joining Donald in the chase.

Phil turned around to face them once, then continued running. "Leave me alone!"

Megara pointed up to the sky. "See that?"

Hercules did a small take. "Well, whaddaya know..." Everyone stopped and looked up at the sky. Even Phil stopped running to look. Then the satyr turned away and began sobbing. Up in the sky, the stars were being rearranged. They ended up in the distinct shapes of Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Alexander. The quartet had been branded as true heroes by the Olympian gods.

* * *

**Disclaimer: I only own Alexander, Joumae, and the Lockshield. Every other element of this story belongs to their respective owners. Namely Square-Enix and Disney.**


	29. He's a Pirate

Chapter 28  
He's a Pirate

"So, Alex," Sora started up again once they were back in the Gummi Ship, "do we go to Disney Castle again next? That's the next one in the order."

Alex shook his head. "Nah, we already took care of everything there. The Dark Corridor as well as the Keyhole."

Donald did a take. "The Keyhole? Where'd you find that?" Alex chuckled. "Actually, it was right under the Cornerstone of Light. Clever, really. The Heartless would never look for it there."

Goofy rubbed the side of his head. "Gawrsh, so we just skip the Castle and go right on ahead to, um... Atlantica!" Sora started steering the ship toward the world in question. Looking back at Alex, he asked, "Do you think we'll be able to handle the musical Sebastion has in mind?"

Alex nodded this time. "Yeah. With your experience with Master Form, you'll handle it just fine." In the game, you needed to have a Drive Gauge of 5. Because you acquired that once you got Master Form, it was easy to find a translation into reality.

Alex leaned back in one of the passenger seats as the trio disembarked. He definitely wasn't going to Atlantica just yet. Alexander looked around at the gummi space around him. On the other side of the path was Port Royal. They would be going there next.

Before Alex knew it, the trio was back. Giving them a chance to get used to being on their feet again, he asked, "So what's delaying you this time?"

Goofy shrugged. "The song Sebastion had seemed to cheer Ariel up a bit, but she's still infatuated with the human world." Donald rolled his eyes. "And now she wants us to get this pendant thing for her."

Sora sighed. "But it's stuck between some rocks on the shore. A simple Magnet spell won't reach it." Alex nodded. "We'll come back when we get Magnera. Now, let's get going to the next world."

* * *

Once again, there was trouble below the rampart of Port Royal. So the quartet immediately ran down to the dock. They were greeted with a strangely horrific sight. It was Jack Sparrow fighting some skeletal pirates! "Jack!" Sora shouted. 

Jack glanced over his shoulder. "Eh... Zola! Some assistance!" Alex chuckled. Sora glared at Jack. "That's SORA, Donald, Goofy, and Alex!"

Jack feigned being wounded, trying to make his point. "Will ye leave a mate to perish?" Sora sighed. "Aye aye..." The quartet brandished their weapons and joined Jack in his fight. Sora, Donald, and Alex focused on their magic to fight the pirates. They remembered that magic had strange effects on the pirates, and was effective in stalling their attacks. This gave them an easy shot, and they took out the small band of pirates quickly.

As they got out of their battle stances, Elizabeth came running out of her hiding spot. "Sora, Donald, Goofy, Alex!" she called out. Sora turned to her. "Hello, Elizabeth." He looked around, obviously confused. "Why are the undead pirates back again?"

Elizabeth looked distressed. "Someone stole the Aztec gold!" This was rewarded with a take from all of them. "Will took the Interceptor and a few men with him to the Isle de Muerta to investigate..." she continued, "but he hasn't come back yet."

Alex turned to Jack. "I guess we should go and check it out." Jack shook his head. "I see no profit in it for me." Elizabeth got an idea. Facing Jack, she added, "Of course, I'm the Governor's daughter. I can see to it that you get some sort of reward."

Jack perked up at the word 'reward'. "Well, what are we waiting for?"

* * *

Goofy leaned over the edge of the ship, scanning the sea for any ships. He pointed at something. "Interceptor off the starboard bow!" he shouted. Everyone came running to see what Goofy was pointing out. 

In the distance, they could see a familiar man leaning over the edge, unconscious. "Will!" Elizabeth shouted.

Jack put his hand above his heart and hung his head. Elizabeth glared at him. "Stop that, Jack!" she scolded him. She turned toward the quartet. "We've got to rescue him."

* * *

They set Will down in the stateroom of the Black Pearl. Elizabeth shook him. "Will, wake up," she urged, patting his cheek hard to wake him up. Will gasped as consciousness returned to him. 

"Elizabeth..." he muttered. "What happened?" Elizabeth demanded. "The medallions... and... the stone chest – someone's taken them..." Will explained. "Next thing I knew, we were attacked... but I couldn't see who it was – his face was shrouded... in a black hood."

"The Organization!" Sora gasped.

"We found a way out of the cave..." Will continued, "but the villian sent a horde of terrible creatures after us... I've never seen their likes before... I think I'm the only one who made it back to the ship..."

"Will..." Elizabeth mumbled. "Elizabeth..." Will murmured. "I feel rather..." And with that, he passed out.

"Must've taken all his strength just to speak," Alex remarked. "Those Nobodies must've done quite a bit of damage."

Sora nodded. "Our turn, guys."

Elizabeth set Will down again and turned to face them. "You'd best go prepared. We've no idea what's out there."

Jack put his hands up, bringing attention to him. "Pardon me, lads and lass, but your captain will have no monsters today. Thank ye. We're turning for home." He started walking out of the stateroom.

"Just like that?" Elizabeth retorted angrily. "Just like that!" Jack confirmed. The quartet followed him out.

* * *

Jack threw the doors open, then did a take at what he saw on the deck. In the middle was the stone chest of Aztec gold. He guessed what was going on. "Don't remember invitin' you," he remarked coldly. An Organization member appeared next to the stone chest. 

_**Nice deduction,**_ Joumae congratulated him. Alex and the others brought out their weapons. "So it was the Organization!" Sora shouted. "We'll handle this!" But he gasped when he noticed the stone chest. He hadn't been expecting that.

"The Organization's number X," Alex yelled. "The Gambler of Fate. Am I correct, Luxord?"

"Indeed," Luxord replied, "though I do so hate formalities, Alexander." He indicated the medallions. "The Darkness of men's hearts – drawn to these cursed medallions; and this Heartless –" he stated as a Grim Reaper Heartless appeared behind him in an inky black smoke, "a veritable maelstrom of avarice: I wonder, are they worthy to serve Organization XIII?"

_**Yeah, it's definitely Luxord,**_ Roxas mumbled, recognizing the Nobody's apparent love of satire. "And you want an answer now?" Jack asked in an irate tone, unsheathing his cutlass. "Precisely," Luxord replied, disappearing into a dark portal.

The Grim Reaper Heartless was a relatively simple boss. All it did was swing its pendulum blade around, sometimes managing to hit one of the five fighters. It also seemed to have the same sensitivity to magic as the skeletal pirates did: fire sent it running, blizzard froze it in place, and thunder stunned it. When it was cornered, it would spin around really fast, form a whirlwind, and appear somewhere else. But that was the extent of its abilities. Soon enough, the quartet and Jack had sent the Heartless into the water below the ship.

"Oh boy!" Donald cheered, jumping in the air for joy. "Not over yet!" Sora warned him, turning to face the reappearing Luxord. Luxord lifted his hood, smirking at the five of them. Jack ordered, "Throw him overboard!" Sora nodded. "Aye aye!" he agreed enthusiastically.

"Parley!" Luxord yelled. "'Scuse me?" Jack groaned.

"Barley?" Goofy mumbled. "It's a bit of a pirates' code," Jack explained. "Anyone who invokes 'parley' must not be harmed 'til negotiations are complete."

"This is no time for rules!" Sora retorted. "True," Jack agreed, stepping forward to face Luxord. "But as we're honorable pirates we should always stick to the Code."

"Hang the Code!" Alex yelled. "Luxord is just going to use it against us anyway!"

Jack ignored him. "All right, you," he muttered to Luxord. "Out with it!" Luxord motioned toward the medallions. "I surrender the chest with my humblest apologies." Alex laughed out loud. Jack also chuckled. "Rather accommodating of you, mate. And for that you want...?"

"Just a few souvenirs..." Luxord declared, extending a hand into the stone chest, "...for the memories." Jack mumbled a "Huh?" right before Luxord threw some medallions up into the air. Four Gambler Nobodies appeared out of nowhere and snatched the medallions, then jumped off the ship.

"Oh, no!" Goofy cried out. "We can't stop the curse unless we got all the medallions!" Alex rolled his eyes, getting into a fighting stance again. "I hate to say I told you so..." Jack glared at the Nobody. "Our friend's about to learn what it means to cross a pirate."

"Oh?" Luxord mused. There was a rumbling beneath the ship. The Grim Reaper Heartless rose up out of the water, except it had undergone a change. Its armor was now a sickly white, and light blue will-o-wisps floated around the pendulum blade as well as the main body. "Sora! Donald! Goofy! Alex! He's yours!" Alex did a take. "But... we can't beat it yet!"

The Grim Reaper spun its blade around and then swung it toward the five of them. There was a huge gust of wind that knocked them back all the way to the Interceptor. Sora immediately got up and stared at the Black Pearl. Luxord stood at the bow, right above the cannons. With a wave of his hand, Luxord shouted, "Fire!"

Will and Elizabeth burst out of the stateroom just in time to see the cannons fire at the Interceptor. With a few shots, the ship was overtaken in explosions. Luxord chuckled and sailed away with the Black Pearl.

* * *

Alex slowly stood up, groaning groggily as he did so. "What happened...?" he asked. He looked around. They were in a wrecked portion of the Interceptor's hold. They had crashed on a island surrounded by sharp rocks. There were other ruined ships along the island. It was the Ship Graveyard. 

Alex stood up. Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Jack were under a hole in the hold, where the moon was shining down on them. Jack had become a skeleton again!

"You stole a medallion again!?" Sora demanded. Jack turned to face him. "Were I only that fortunate..." he remarked. "Fortunate?" Donald repeated in confusion. Goofy took a gander at Jack. "So, uh, how come you're all skeleton-y?"

"Perhaps I got a touch o' somethin' from that monster what attacked us," Jack suggested. "Yet, why's the skin restin' right on you three?"

"'Cause we're not greedy!" Donald declared. Sora and Goofy did a humongous take, and stared at Donald. Donald? Not greedy? "What're you lookin' at?" Donald retorted. Sora shrugged. "That still doesn't solve the mystery." He looked at Alexander. "How are you doing, Alex?" Everyone turned to face him.

Alex scratched the back of his head, kinda confused. "All right, I guess..." He started to walk toward them. As he stepped into the moonlight, the others gasped. Alex felt kinda weird. He looked at himself and did a take. His body was all dark, his eyes had become a bright glowing yellow, and his hands had become dark claws along with his dark body. He was in Anti Form!

"So does that make this lad here partially greedy?" Jack proposed. Sora shook his head. "I really don't know. That's just making things even more confusing." Jack shrugged and walked away.

"Gawrsh... Maybe the reason we're all okay is because we're not from this world," Goofy reasoned. Alex noticed Jack stop to listen from the shadows. "There must be different laws," Donald agreed. "Yeah... We're always just passing through..." Sora remarked. He sighed. "Wonder when we'll see home again..."

Donald and Goofy were surprised. This was a major lapse from the cheerful Sora they knew. "Sora..." Donald mumbled. Sora laughed, and he was instantly his old self again. "Just kiddin' you. Lucky we didn't get cursed, huh?"

Alex cleared his throat. Sora flinched. "Oh yeah... So how come Alex got cursed and not us? He's not from this world either." Donald nodded. "Yeah, and how come his curse is being in Anti Form?"

Alexander thought about it for a moment. He could feel an explanation coming on. "Perhaps it's because this world is kinda based on a period of time in my universe. As for the Anti Form..." Alex stared at his claws. "Well, Luxord said that darkness was attracted to the medallions. My heart is mainly darkness, because I used my light to create this universe. Maybe that medallion curse triggered this permanent Anti Form..."

"Quit yammerin', mates!" Jack shouted back to them. "We've got to find ourselves a ship that'll float." Without further comment, the five fighters walked out of the Interceptor's hold.

As Alex stepped out of the moonlight, he reverted back to his usual form. But he still felt the constant flow of darkness within his body that he felt in Anti Form. Alex flexed his hand. He had expected the Lockshield to appear, but it didn't. Also, he had heard nothing from Joumae. This above all else made Alex determined to rid himself of this curse.

* * *

The quintet had made their way out of the Ship Graveyard cave. They were at another wreck, which had a set of planks sticking out like at a dock. The moon was free to shine here, so Jack and Alex were in their curse forms. Donald gasped and pointed up a ramp of wood. "Look!" 

They all turned and saw a Gambler Nobody. It was tossing a medallion up into the air with its "hand". Jack brandished his cutlass, and the trio brought out their weapons. Alex got on all fours. "A medallion!" Jack exclaimed. "Get it!"

The Gambler, noticing that the five fighters were focused on him, slowly tried to run away. But it wasn't fast enough. Alex ran up to it and swiped with his claws, tearing up the Nobody. Soon, Jack and the others had caught up with him.

The Nobody got away from Alex, and Jack chased it into the wooden room, where he reverted back to a human form. Alex tried to follow, but the reverting ended up ridding him of his weapons: his hands. It was up to Jack. With one slash of Jack's sword, the Nobody burst into nothingness.

The medallion hovered for a moment, then dropped to the ground. Jack walked over to it and picked it up. "Three more to go!"

"How do you know?" Sora wondered. Jack glanced back at him and grinned. "A pirate must have a keen eye. Else he won't be sailin' free for very long. Savvy?"

Donald gasped. "Look!" Everyone looked. There was a ship approaching them from the mist. As it pulled up aside them, they saw Elizabeth waving to them from the bow. "Ahoy, mateys!" she shouted to them, in what was supposed to be a pirate accent.

Jack rolled his eyes. "Ridiculous imitation – and yet, I'm flattered."

* * *

Will gasped. "Alex, Jack... what happened to you?" 

Alex shrugged. A gesture which, in his Anti Form, seemed to be out of place for him. "That Heartless boss cursed us, I guess."

Jack nodded. "And the monster in question seems to have the curse of the gold on it. So we have to find the blasted medallions that its friends took."

Sora looked confused. "All right, but... where do we look?" The trio turned to Alex. "Well, there are only two places that the Nobodies with the medallions would be hiding at. The Isle de Muerta and this Ship Graveyard. We already got one here, so let's go to the Isle."

* * *

The five fighters stepped into the cave leading to the treasure room. Alex hid behind a rock, and motioned for the others to do the same. As the others did so, Alexander peered around the rock. There was a Gambler with a medallion. But this confrontation would be much more complicated than the last. 

"Okay," he started, turning toward the others. "As soon as that thing notices us, it'll disappear after a few seconds and run away. We need to destroy it before that happens." His comrades nodded.

"Now!" Alex yelled, running into the clearing. He stepped into the moonlight and shifted into Anti Form. The Gambler noticed him and tried to back away. Alex slashed at it with his claws a bunch of times, literally ripping it to shreds. The Nobody disappeared, and its medallion dropped to the ground.

Jack stared at it as Sora picked it up. "That was far too easy," he remarked. Glancing at Alex, he added, "That curse of yours seems to be more of a blessing." Alex sighed. "No, it's a curse, believe me. In the end, darkness always is." Without another word, the comrades pressed onward into the cave.

They came to the part of the cave where the pirates had stored their gunpowder in large crates. Alex immediately got an idea. "There's probably another one hiding behind one of these piles of crates. We need to find it before it disappears."

Jack nodded. "Simple enough. I have something that'll clear away this gunpowder in no time." With that, he pulled something round out of his pocket. It was a bomb. He lit it and threw it at a stack of crates. The bomb exploded, igniting the gunpowder and making it explode as well. When the smoke cleared, there was a somewhat startled Gambler standing in a spot of moonlight behind where the crates had been. Alex made quick work of it.

"So that makes three medallions," Sora muttered as he picked up the one the Nobody had dropped. He turned to Alex. "Are there any more here?" Alex shook his head as he stepped out of the moonlight. "Nope. We gotta go back to the Ship Graveyard."

And so they sailed back to the Ship Graveyard. They found the last Nobody in the same place as they had the first, and they defeated it in nearly the same way as they had the others. Alex shook his head when he was done. "Jack's right, this is far too easy." He paused. "And boring. Let's go."

As he turned to leave, he noticed something under the wreckage of one ship. Taking a closer look, he found something sticking out from the rock. It was a Keyhole. "Darn," Alex muttered. "I'll have to come back for it later."

* * *

Sora held all of the cursed gold in his hand. "That's four medallions! We got 'em all!" Jack shrugged. "But where's the chest?" 

"If we find the hooded man," Will assured, "we'll find it." Alexander nodded. "And we'll also find his pet Heartless alongside him, too."

Sora thought about it. "Prob'ly in Port Royal." Elizabeth didn't quite see the deduction taking place. "Why's that?"

"Organization XIII is after people's hearts," Sora explained. "So they're gonna go wherever there's lots of people." Will was rather shocked. "They'll hurt the townsfolk?"

Jack rolled his eyes. "No, they're bringin' 'em flowers, mate. I don't know who these Organizers are, but I will say they're makin' we pirates look like proper gents," he remarked, rather irritated by the Organization by now. Jack started walking up to the helm.

Will thought about this new development. "Well, Jack... then... we have to help!" Jack gave him a look as if to say that was perfectly obvious. "Then let go and haul to run free!"

* * *

Alex, Sora, Donald, Goofy, Jack, and Will ran into the dock. They saw the stone chest, and the undead Grim Reaper guarding it. "Go!" Jack urged. "He's for me." Jack ran into the town, and the Heartless followed. Sora and the others then ran up to the chest. "Now to break that curse!" He dropped the medallions into it. The Grim Reaper immediately reverted to its normal form. "The curse!" Donald shouted. "It's gone!" 

Jack looked at his still-skeletal hands. "Then what's this?" Goofy looked for a second, then nodded. "Aw, I understand. You two musta been cursed by that monster, not from takin' the gold."

"Oh, I've no worries, then," Jack remarked sarcastically. Alex nodded. "Well, at least that makes more sense. Since it's a Heartless, it has to be a Heartless curse for me."

"It's okay, you guys," Sora assured them. "We'll just have to defeat the monster, that's all."

Almost on cue, the Grim Reaper charged at them and swung its blade, making them all dive. Then it slammed the weapon into the chest, making a few medallions go everywhere. The Heartless's curse returned, making it invulnerable. "Get the gold!" Jack ordered.

Donald attacked first. He ran up to it and shouted, "_Fira_!" A large circle of flame enveloped Donald. It burned the Heartless, sending it running. It dropped some medallions on the way. Goofy was quick to pick up as many as he could and drop them into the chest.

The Grim Reaper recovered. It quickly spun around and appeared near the stone chest. It spun its blade around again, forming a whirlwind around the chest and the Heartless, which started sucking up medallions from the chest. "Sora!" Alex yelled.

Sora nodded. He ran up to the Heartless, avoiding the will-o-wisps, and stopped the spinning of the pendulum blade. Sora spun around the blade, grabbed it, and whacked the Heartless with it. It seemed to be effective enough. Then, while the Heartless was in the air, Sora spun it around, grabbing the remaining will-o-wisps with the blade, and launched it at the airborne Heartless. The blade collided with the main body, making it drop all the medallions it had held. Goofy and Donald made quick work of picking them up and restoring them to the chest. The Grim Reaper's curse disappeared again.

Jack started giving out orders. "You three! Guard the chest and make sure that monster doesn't get near it! Alex, you help me get rid of this curse!" Alex was more than happy to oblige.

Alexander loped over to the stunned Heartless and started a barrage of slashes and kicks. Jack waved at him. Alex ran over to Jack. He was pointing at a treasure chest that had come out of nowhere. With no better idea, Alex opened it. Suddenly, a bright blue vortex appeared above the chest, sucking the Heartless boss into it. Jack jumped up and started slashing the Heartless in midair. Alex also scratched it with his claws when it came by.

After a while, the Heartless had gotten used to the force, so it was about to escape. Alex pushed on the top of the treasure chest, trying to close it. Jack dropped a lit bomb into it right before it closed. They all dropped down beside the chest. Alex and Jack exchanged a worried look, then jumped out of the way, letting the Grim Reaper take the full force of the bomb's explosion.

The Grim Reaper shuddered, and dropped its blade. Alexander and the others watched as the Heartless continued to flail until it finally plopped onto the ground. Alex looked at his hands again. They were flesh again. The same went for Jack.

"All better," Sora declared. "Ah, not quite, mate," Jack disagreed. They both glanced at the Heartless again. A large dark heart floated out of it, and into the void of darkness that was within Luxord's hand. Luxord smirked as the heart faded into the darkness. "Sora, bravo."

The five fighters ran up to him, but Luxord finally disappeared. Jack put a hand on Sora's shoulder, grabbing his attention. "Just who was that chap?" he asked.

Sora sighed. "He's part of an Organization that's collecting hearts. First they release Heartless into different worlds. We defeat those Heartless. Then they get the hearts. We're never gonna stop 'em like this."

Will and Elizabeth walked toward them. Jack fully turned to face Sora. "What's the plan, then?" Sora paused, then replied, "We've gotta find their stronghold and finish them off once and for all." Jack looked a bit confused. "Sailin' these waters, I've heard some tales, but not a one like this."

Will asked, "Is there any way we can help?" Sora folded his arms and hummed to himself in thought. "Anything at all?" Elizabeth added.

Alex nodded. "Actually, there are a couple things..."

* * *

Alexander stood at the Ship Graveyard again. He held out his hand, and the Lockshield appeared in inky black smoke. **_C'mon..._** Joumae teased, **_say it. You missed me, didn't you?_** Alex rolled his eyes. _I said it, like, twenty times. Do I really need to say it again?_

_**No,**_ Joumae admitted, **_but I need a reason to torment you for old times' sake._** Alex sighed and pointed his weapon at the Keyhole. A blue beam shot out from the keyhole in the center and collided with the world's Keyhole. There was a loud clicking sound, and the Keyhole disappeared.

* * *

Alexander and the others stared at the stone chest. They were on the Black Pearl, and had sailed out to a blank spot in the ocean to drop it off so that no one would be able to invoke the curse again. The only problem... how to seal it? 

_**You could always just ask.**_ Alex raised an eyebrow. _You can seal a stone chest?_ He heard Joumae chuckle. **_Not me. The Lockshield. It doesn't just _unlock_ things. It can also _lock_ them._**

Alex summoned his Lockshield again. Placing it face-down on the stone chest, he shouted, "Lock!" Out of nowhere, tendrils of darkness snaked their way around the chest and the gap between the stone lid and the chest itself. A steel barrier formed itself around the seam, with a large keyhole at the top of the mechanism. "Not bad," Goofy commented.

Suddenly, a halo of darkness surrounded the stone chest. Alex knew what was to happen next. Alex held out his Lockshield. All the other people in on the Black Pearl disappeared. A light flashed from the Lockshield, and the shining image of the Heartless emblem appeared beneath his feet. A strange wind started to blow against him as his surroundings were enveloped by another light. He looked around at the starry expanse.

The chest shot a dark beam into the air, which formed a large keyhole in the space above him. Alex looked into it, and saw the mass of Shadows inching toward the opening. Alexander twirled the Lockshield around and then finally pointed it at the keyhole. A halo surrounded his weapon for a moment, then it closed in and shot out a beam at the Dark Corridor. When it collided, a dark green wall formed itself and covered up the opening. Then the whole space lit up, blinding Alex for a moment before he appeared back on the Black Pearl.

Sora and the others lifted up the stone chest, placed it on the bow, and gave it one good push. With a huge splash, it sunk down to Davy Jones' locker.

Jack sighed. "It's certain we don't need the likes of that hooded fellow and the Heartless about. They'll ruin the market for us true pirates."

Elizabeth glared at him. "So that's why you went to Port Royal. And we actually thought you wanted to save everyone."

Jack grinned. "A pirate always looks to profit, Miss Swann." Sora chuckled. "Too bad. You had us going there, thinking you'd turned over a new leaf."

"The question is," Jack proposed, "what's beyond the leaf? Savvy?" Elizabeth sighed, realizing what he meant. "Oh... oh, yes – a reward. And what'll it be?"

"That lovely blade of Sora's," Jack replied instantly. The quartet did a take. "Huh?" they all chorused. Sora was the first to recover. "Okay," he replied calmly. "Sure." He summoned the Keyblade, and presented it hilt-first to Jack, who was immediately suspicious. "Hold on! That was far too easy. What's the rub?"

Hesitantly, Jack held out his hand and grasped the Keyblade. He had a few moments to look at it before it disappeared in a flash of light and reappeared in Sora's hand. Jack chuckled. "There, you see?"

Sora shrugged. "Well, you always got the Pearl, Jack." Jack nodded. "That I do. But someday, I'll gather a blood-thirsty crew, and come to take that blade. Chance by then I'll have the way to wield it." He turned to Will and Elizabeth. "And if I succeed, I'll ask you two to join me. That'd be reward enough."

"Done," Elizabeth replied quickly, making Will do a take at her eagerness.

Goofy lowered his voice, talking to Alex and Donald. "Maybe someday, Jack'll be able to use the Keyblade after all." Donald was confused. "Why's that?"

Goofy turned to Jack and Sora. "A-hyuck! He and Sora are kind of alike, dontcha think?"

"Are not!" Jack and Sora replied simultaneously. A few seconds went by as the irony of the situation sunk in. Then they all laughed heartily.

* * *

Will, Elizabeth, Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Alex watched Jack sail away from Port Royal. "Some say Jack Sparrow's the worst pirate ever to sail the Spanish Main," Will remarked. 

"No one could really mean that," Elizabeth scoffed. Will nodded. "Right. We know he's the best." Sora sighed. "I hope we'll get to see him again." Alex laughed. "Are you kidding? He's a pirate. Of course we'll see him again."

* * *

**Disclaimer: I only own Alexander, Joumae, and the Lockshield. Every other element of this story belongs to their respective owners. Namely Square-Enix and Disney.**


	30. Spooks of Halloween Town

Chapter 29  
Spooks of Halloween Town

Alex thought to himself as he stared out of the Gummi Ship's bubble. After a moment, he began to laugh. "Y'know what? I think that this last experience was the weirdest one I've experienced yet."

Sora did a take. "You sure?" The Keyblade Master had all the reason to be skeptical. After visiting such worlds like Timeless River, Pride Lands, and Space Paranoids, had Port Royal been so weird?

Alexander nodded. "Yep. At least, for me it was." He shuddered. Being stuck in Anti Form was not exactly a pleasurable experience. All in all, he was glad to be back to normal. But there was still a part of him that had _liked_ the feeling. That part scared him.

Goofy chuckled. "Well, we're comin' up on Halloween Town." Donald grinned. "Yeah, maybe you'll experience something even weirder!" Alex nodded in silence. Halloween Town was definitely a weird world.

* * *

Alex, Sora, Donald, and Goofy appeared in the Hinterlands in their Halloween costumes. Alexander was still not used to the sudden costume change, but he was handling it better. Looking over himself, he remarked, "I can't wait to try out this costume in the real world." 

Alex noticed that the others had stopped. He looked ahead at what they were staring at. "Huh?" Donald mumbled. Strewn about on the ground, there were many boxes covered with bright wrapping and ribbons. Christmas presents!

Around the corner, they saw a bony figure stop to pick up one off the ground. It was Jack Skellington, in his Santa Claus outfit. Holding one present in his arm, and waving with another in a bony hand, he yelled, "Perfect timing, gentlemen! Lend me a hand, won't you?"

He walked over to Sora. "These presents must belong to Sandy Claws," Jack explained. "So I thought I'd better return them."

Sora thought about it for a few seconds. Folding his arms, he asked, "You just happened to find them?" Jack bent down to Sora's level. "Of course, Sora." He poked one of Sora's fake vampire fangs. "I'm finished with Christmas fantasies. You know tha-_at_." His voice suddenly rippled on the last syllable. Jack walked on toward the door to Christmas Town.

Sora watched him go by. He muttered, "But you thought you'd hold on to the suit." Jack turned to face him. "What, this?" He chuckled. "It's just a costume." He turned away again. "And Sally worked so very hard making it!"

**_Should I just take it for granted that we can't trust anyone named Jack?_** Roxas suggested. Alex chuckled at the joke. True, they couldn't trust Jack Sparrow, and they didn't really trust Jack Skellington right now.

Jack ordered, "Come on. We've got work to do!" So the quartet picked up the remaining scattered presents and followed Jack to Christmas Town.

* * *

Sora and the others walked into Santa's house. "Oh!" Santa Claus cried out, walking over to them. "Wherever did you find these?" They laid the Christmas presents on the small table. Jack held one out to him. "In Halloween Town." 

Santa snatched the present. "You'll be needing them for Christmas," Jack continued, "right, Sandy?" Santa nodded. "Of course." He paused. "But these are just a few of the Christmas presents that were stolen."

The quintet flinched. "Stolen!?" Sora repeated in disbelief. All eyes turned to Jack. He scratched the side of his skull for a moment, then stepped forward. "Oh, Sandy..." he moaned. "You don't think it was ME?"

"Still wearing the outfit, I see," Santa pointed out. "I just thought I'd dress for the occasion," Jack retorted. Receiving no reply, he added with a sigh, "But if you don't believe me, then we'll just have to find out who really did it!" This was rewarded with another flinch from the quartet.

Santa thought about it, then nodded. "Very well, I'll leave it to you." Jack suddenly had a look of determination on his face. "All right, Sora! Donald! Goofy! Alex!" He glanced at each one of them in turn, making them flinch in order as he did so. "We're off!" Jack shouted, pointing toward the way out of the house. He began to walk away.

Alex and the others stared after him. Then they all hung their heads simultaneously. But a crashing noise from the workshop brought their heads back up, and Jack back into the room.

* * *

The noise came from the second story workshop, otherwise known as the wrapping room. The five fighters walked into it. "No!" they heard a little girl's voice cry. It was Shock! Lock and Barrel were with her, searching through the stuffed animals and such that were scattered along the floor. 

Barrel patted a stuffed bear. "This looks good," he decided. "No!" Shock shouted again. "Boooring!" Lock agreed. Barrel shuddered, and tossed the bear back, barely missing Alex in the process. Their search continued. "This one?" Lock suggested. "No!" Shock yelled yet again. "No way!" Barrel groaned.

Donald finally stepped forward. Apparently, he'd seen enough. "Hey!" Slowly, the three troublemakers turned to face them, and flinched. "So YOU three took them!" Sora accused. "Took what?" Shock retorted, stomping her foot on the conveyor belt.

"You stole the presents, didn't you?" Jack interrogated, pointing a skeletal finger at them. "It wasn't us!" Lock denied after a moment. "But..." Barrel slowly muttered. "It really sounds like fun!" Shock finished.

The three troublemakers scattered. "Run for it!" they all yelled. The quartet did a take. They had to chase them down! Jack didn't really seem fazed by this situation. He was obviously used to this.

Alex looked around as he and the others brought out their weapons. There were three large brown boxes with green trim lying around the workshop. "Hey, let's knock them out and trap them in these boxes," Alex whispered to the others, who agreed.

The three were a tricky pair to fight. Each one had their own magical element, and a slight control over it too. Shock obviously had some electrical tricks, Lock was a bit of a fire user, and Barrel had ice. They didn't use it often, usually preferring to run away quickly. And they were fast, so that was usually the best option. But once one of the quintet was able to corner the little guys, they went down easily. That was the cue for either Sora or Alex to whack the boxes toward the victim. That way, the box toppled over until it landed closed with its opening panel toward the ground, trapping them inside. It was a hefty task, but it really only took them a few minutes to trap the three troublemakers.

Jack sat them up against the conveyor belt. "Where did you put the presents?" he demanded. Shock shook her tiny fist. "We didn't take them!" Lock stood up. "Who would want to take those anyway? They aren't scary or gross. C'mon, it's boring here," he added to his comrades. "Let's go back to Halloween Town." The three tykes left, leaving the quintet confused.

* * *

Jack led the way back into Santa's room. "So are those three the culprits?" Santa asked. Jack shook his head sadly. "No, it doesn't look like it." 

Sora, Donald, and Goofy turned to Alex. "Do you know who it was, Alex?" Sora asked him. Alex folded his arms, and shrugged. "Well," he finally replied, "it's not so much a question of _who_..."

"Jack?" a woman's voice asked from behind them. Everyone turned to face the newcomer. "Sally?" Jack cried out. Sally nodded. "The Heartless have appeared in the town square again. Just thought you should know."

Sora sighed. "That's our cue." Jack looked worried. "But we still need to find out who took the Christmas presents!"

Sally gave him a puzzled look. "Actually, they were playing with some presents when I found them..." Jack suddenly became serious again. "Aha! We found our culprits!"

* * *

The mayor of Halloween Town put on his distressed face and shouted, "You! You can't be here! Leave Halloween Town, by order of the mayor!" 

The four Wight Knight Heartless completely ignored him, instead tossing around the Christmas presents they were holding. In a creepy way, it really did look like they were playing. "Somebody? Anybody!" the mayor yelled. "I'm only an elected official – I can't handle this by myself!"

Alex stopped in his tracks as the others ran into the square. The mayor's last statement had really confused him. "Woah... That's some serious déjà vu..."

Jack stared at the Heartless. "Sally was right!" he declared. "We've got to get the presents!" Sora summoned his Keyblade. The others brought out their weapons. Alex finally caught up with them and summoned his Lockshield.

Alex grinned. "Hey, Heartless!" he yelled. The Wight Knights turned to him. Donald did a take. "Alex, what are you doing!?" Alex looked back at Donald, still grinning. "Putting some notes I took to good use." Alexander began to run, and the Wight Knights followed him. Passing the fountain in the middle, Alex whacked it, causing a volatile blob of green slime at him, which happened to hit a Wight Knight in the back as he continued to run. The Wight Knight disappeared, and it dropped a present.

Alex ran past the guillotine. One of the Wight Knights took a shortcut and went under the guillotine. Bad move. The blade dropped down, slicing the Heartless into oblivion. The present landed on the ground unharmed.

Knowing that the Heartless wouldn't ever catch on, Alex ran past the malfunctioning gate. The gate snapped open, but Alex wasn't in that spot anymore. A Wight Knight was, and was caught completely off guard by the gate. It dropped another present, which was hit by the gate again and sent flying.

For one last round, Alex ran over the sewer grates. The Wight Knight was close behind. But not so close that it was out of the way of the green slime that suddenly shot up after Alex. The Heartless dissipated in midair, and the present dropped to the ground next to the grates.

Alexander sighed. "Turns out paying attention to detail pays off," he decided. He had noticed the oddities of the town square a while back. **_Never thought it'd actually work, though..._** Joumae mused.

Jack glanced at one of the dropped presents. He walked over to it. The present had burst open and dropped a doll. Jack accidentally stepped on the doll and picked up the box. "What a shame! It looks like it was such a nice present!"

Sora realized that Jack must not have noticed the doll under his foot. "Uh, Jack–" But he was interrupted by the door to Dr. Finkelstein's lab suddenly opening. The mad doctor himself sat there, rubbing his metal cranium. "Oh, help!" he wailed. "Someone help me! My latest experiment is gone – it's been stolen!"

* * *

"I was just sitting here at my desk..." Dr. Finkelstein explained, motioning toward it. They were all standing in his lab. "...when suddenly, I was attacked! When I came to, the experiment was gone!" 

Alex folded his arms. "Did you see who attacked you?" The scientist shook his head.

Jack suddenly got an idea. "Maybe it wasn't the Heartless who stole the presents. Maybe it was someone else!" Dr. Finkelstein shot a quizzical look at Jack. "And this miscreant is the same one that stole my experiment?"

Jack nodded. "Of course!" He turned to Sora and the others. "And I have the perfect plan to find him!" Goofy tilted his head to the side. "What do you have in mind?"

Jack beamed at them. "Well, the culprit obviously loves presents, so we lure him with a huge pile of Christmas presents!" This idea got more takes from the others. "We'll need Sandy Claws' help," Jack decided. And so, off they were to Christmas Town again.

* * *

Santa turned to face the quintet as they entered his home again. "Have you found the culprit yet?" he asked. Jack looked excited. He had looked like that the whole time. "Almost, Sandy Claws!" At length, he explained his plan to Santa. 

Once again, this was rewarded with a take. "Christmas presents!?" He quickly got over the initial shock and thought about it. "Well, it's for a good cause... Okay, fine. Use the workshop upstairs. And put some heart into it!"

And so, back up to the wrapping room again. Turned out that the best way to make a lot of cheap presents fast was to use a cannon and fire toys at a lot of empty boxes. Of course, they had to mind Lock, Shock, and Barrel, who were there to mess up their work. But the ones who weren't operating the toy cannon chased them off before the project was finished.

Donald tossed a beautifully wrapped present into the air. Perfect bait, like the other presents were around them. "All done!"

Jack raised a bony finger, implying that he begged to differ. "Not quite." Goofy looked up from the pile of presents. "There's more?" Jack nodded. "Don't worry, I'll take care of the rest."

So the quartet walked back into Santa's room. "Did you finish making the presents?" he wondered. Sora nodded. "Yep, just waiting for Jack." Goofy glanced at Donald. "So, uh, where do you think we oughta leave them?"

Santa thought about this. "Hmm... Oh, I know a good spot. Whenever you're ready, just say the word."

Suddenly, Jack walked through the doorway. "I'm back!" he announced. Alex folded his arms. "That was awfully quick..."

* * *

Santa opened up the gates to a separate clearing away from the main town square. "This plaza should work well for your plan." He turned to face Jack. "Now, Jack... what IS your plan?" 

"I've got it all figured out," Jack assured him. Santa didn't seem as thrilled. "You do..."

"Of course!" Jack agreed. "And I also have a wonderful idea. If we catch the thief for you, I would be honored to deliver the–"

Sora placed a hand over Jack's mouth. "And on that note, we'll be going." The quartet all collaborated in pushing Jack along. "What are you doing?" Jack mumbled. "Let me go!" Sora retracted his hand, and patted Jack's shoulder. Jack grimaced as they walked into the plaza.

* * *

"Stop kicking!" Donald quacked. "It's not me, Donald," Goofy denied. "Ah, sorry," Alex apologized. "Patience, friends," Jack chided them. Sora shushed them harshly. 

They were in the middle of the clearing. Presents were strewn about all over. There was an awfully huge present in the middle. And it was... shaking. "I said cut it out!" Donald yelled. "Gawrsh, was that you?" Goofy asked. The box shook again. "Look, it wasn't me that time!" Alex protested.

"How come we have to be the bait?" Sora asked. They were all inside the box. Needless to say, it was a tight fit. "Good plan, eh?" Jack replied. The box shook violently again. "Ouch!" Donald shouted.

They all suddenly became still. There were footsteps approaching. They were heavy, and Alex could make out a faint clinking noise with each step. After a moment, when they heard it reach out an arm toward the box, they all suddenly burst out of it. "Gotcha!" Sora yelled.

"Huh?" Jack mumbled. It was a gastly metal creature, with an oven for a torso, a hose and claw for a left arm, a sickly metal claw for a right arm, a weird metal head that didn't stick right, and a skull for the hip joint. Jack gasped. "Dr. Finkelstein's experiment did it!"

They all jumped out of the box and brought out their weapons. Alex jumped up and started bashing the experiment. The thing was heavy and slow, so it was easy to attack. The only good defense it was the lasers it shot out of its mouth. Weird.

As soon as the parts had taken enough damage, they all broke apart, scattered across the clearing, and rearranged themselves. The right arm and the head stood in one place, thrashing about to try and hit one of them while shooting lasers. The left arm floated about, creating a vortex to suck the fighters up. The main body and the skull came together and began to spin around. Sora jumped onto that, and kicked it toward the left arm. It's own attack damaged the main body.

Seeming to have had enough, the body came together again. Except it was all arranged differently. The skull and head were switched, as well as the arms. The legs were nowhere to be found. It continued its attacks at them.

Alex had an idea. "Sora!" he yelled. Sora nodded. Alex ran toward him and jumped. His feet landed on Sora's Keyblade, and Sora used that to launch him up into the air. Alex fell back down to the earth after a moment, bringing the face of the shield straight down onto the experiment's body.

Alex backed off and joined his comrades, facing down the experiment. The floating torso shuddered, then collapsed onto the ground. A strange dark aura appeared around it, and the metal body disappeared. "We did it!" Jack shouted. "The mystery is solved!"

They suddenly heard sleigh bells above them. Santa Claus rode down on his sleigh and walked over to them when he landed. "Did you catch the thief?" he asked. "Naturally!" Jack replied with glee.

Sora glanced at the remaining heap of metal. "I just can't figure out why the doctor's experiment would go around stealing Christmas presents." Santa looked surprised. "His experiment?" Jack nodded. "The thief! It was a moving puppet made by Dr. Finkelstein."

Santa walked over to the junk and examined it with an air of curiosity. "Hmm... The doctor's made a moving puppet? I see... He is always tinkering with things." He turned to face them once more. "Now listen, Jack. I'd like to thank you, and while delivering presents is something only I can do, I can give you an idea of what it's like."

Jack's face lit up. "Sandy Claws!" With Santa's permission, he jumped into the sleigh. He admired the reins like a child would admire a brand new toy. Santa turned toward the puppet's remains again. "Yes, all that poor puppet wanted was a heart."

He motioned to the reindeer. The sleigh took off and rose up into the sky. "Ho! Ho! Ho!" Jack shouted.

* * *

"Interesting!" Dr. Finkelstein remarked when the quartet had related the story to him in the Halloween Town's square. "So the puppet wasn't stolen after all! It ran away on its own. In other words, my experiment was an overwhelming success!" 

Alex thought to mention that it was an overwhelming success that tried to kill them, but he refrained from doing so.

"Santa Claus thinks maybe it left because it was trying to find a heart," Sora added. The doctor nodded thoughtfully. "That's quite possible. Unlike my Sally, it wasn't equipped with a heart." He steered his wheelchair back into his lab, leaving the quartet with more questions.

"But if it wanted a heart, why was it going around stealing all those Christmas presents?" Sora asked. Sally stepped out from behind one of the guillotine's supports. "Maybe because... presents are a way to give your heart to someone special," she suggested. Sora thought about it. "Hmm... When you put it that way, I feel sort of bad for it."

Alex chuckled. Donald glanced at him. "What's so funny?" Alex rolled his eyes. "Sora, do you feel bad for Organization XIII?" Sora gave him a weird look. "No, of course not. Why?"

Alex sighed. "Then you shouldn't feel bad for that puppet. It was pretty much the exact same scenario." Before anything further could be discussed, some sleigh bells interrupted them. Jack dropped down from the sky, landing on his feet with ease, startling the quartet.

The jingling of the bells continued. The silhouette of Santa's sleigh appeared in front of the moon. "Happy Halloween!" Santa shouted. Snow began to fall on Halloween Town. A rarity in itself.

"What a nice present," Sally remarked, gazing up at the snow. Jack was utterly confused. "I don't understand. There's no box! No ribbon tied in a bow!"

Sora looked up at it too. "Jack, it's not about the box or the ribbons. It's about what's inside the box!" Sally shook her head. "No, Sora. What really counts – what's really special – is the act of giving the gift. To wish deep in your heart to make someone else happy."

Jack nodded. "Right. Of course! Thank you, Sally, you're absolutely right." He put a hand over his chest. "Wait! What's this? I feel so strange... so very happy!"

"Jack," Goofy shouted, "that must be Sally's present!" Alex did a take. "Really?" Jack asked. "This wonderful feeling?" He walked over to Sally and took her hands. "Oh, Sally! You've given me the nicest present in the world! And I've nothing to give you in return. What would you like? Just name it. Absolutely anything."

Sally smiled. "The nicest present I could ever ask for, Jack, is just to be with you."

Eyes rolled. Wait, eyes were averted, then rolled. The eyes that belonged to the quartet, anyway. With the possible exception of Sora, who looked clueless. It was all Alexander could do to not scream at the incredible mush content of this scene.

Jack grinned. "You don't even have to ask for that." Jack swept Sally off her feet and leaped away.

* * *

Jack and Sally danced in the square. The snow falling down around them really did make for a romantic setting, even Alex had to admit. 

"Maybe I never gave her a real present after all," Sora remarked, breaking Alex's train of thought. Donald looked at him. "Who?" Goofy put his hands on Sora's shoulders reassuringly. "Aw, I bet Kairi would like most anything you gave her."

"I know," Sora replied. "That's what made it so hard to decide." Donald shrugged. "It's not the gift, it's what's in your heart!" he stated. "My heart..." Sora repeated.

Donald nodded. "Yeah, Kairi's like Sally!" Alex flinched. "How?" he demanded. "Well, as long as she can be with you, Sora, what else does she need?" Goofy suggested.

Sora looked at Jack and Sally dancing. Alex knew that Sora was daydreaming about himself dancing with Kairi. So he looked away. A snowflake dropped into his hand, and a halo of darkness surrounded it. Alex immediately pulled out the Lockshield.

All the other people in the town square disappeared. A light flashed from the Lockshield, and the shining image of the Heartless emblem appeared beneath his feet. A strange wind started to blow against him as his surroundings were enveloped by another light. He looked around at the starry expanse.

The snowflake shot a dark beam into the air, which formed a large keyhole in the space above him. Alex looked into it, and saw the mass of Shadows inching toward the opening. Alexander twirled the Lockshield around and then finally pointed it at the keyhole. A halo surrounded his weapon for a moment, then it closed in and shot out a beam at the Dark Corridor. When it collided, a dark green wall formed itself and covered up the opening. Then the whole space lit up, blinding Alex for a moment before he appeared back in the Halloween Town square.

Alex chuckled. Looking up into the sky, he remarked, "Halloween and Christmas will never be the same for me again..." He could only imagine how Halloween and Christmas would be like back home... if he ever got back home.

* * *

**Disclaimer: I only own Alexander, Joumae, and the Lockshield. Every other element of this story belongs to their respective owners. Namely Square-Enix and Disney.**

**Happy Halloween!****  
October 31, 2006**


	31. Ursula's Revenge

Chapter 30  
Ursula's Revenge

Alex held up the two violet orbs. "Hey, guys, look what I found!" he said to his friends. Sora and the others turned around in their seats. Their eyes widened. Sora immediately got out of the pilot's seat and snatched one of them. Like all of the other Elements, it disappeared, probably embedding itself somewhere in his body.

"A Magnet Element!" Sora exclaimed. "Now we can go back to Atlantica!" Without hesitation, he immediately began to do so. Alex rolled his eyes as he absorbed his Element. This was what he had been afraid of.

They approached the world and prepared to disembark. Goofy turned back to Alex. "Okay, see ya..." His voice trailed off when he saw Alex standing right next to him.

Everyone else looked. Alexander was coming too? "I thought you didn't like Atlantica," Donald whined. Alex sighed. "I'm afraid I don't have a choice. I'm not sitting here for three days."

This got a take from the others. "Three days!?" Sora repeated in disbelief. "We're gonna be here that long?" Alex nodded. "Well, shall we? I guess I'll have to stand it this time..."

* * *

Alexander did not like being underwater. The best he'd ever done as far as swimming goes is some dog paddling. So now he was underwater, and quite a ways away from the surface. And he hadn't quite figured out that he had gills. 

The trio watched as Alex slowly stopped panicking and looked himself over. He was a merman, like Sora was. Goofy was a turtle, and Donald's lower half was that of an octopus. How the duck had managed that, Alex had no idea.

"This is an awfully weird feeling," Alex admitted, hanging upside-down as he faced the trio. Sora, Donald, and Goofy began to chuckle. Alex tried to get himself aligned the right way, but no motion would do him good. "I really need to learn to swim..."

So the trio spent the next few minutes teaching Alexander the basics of swimming as a fish. The whole concept, as Alex found out, was a series of alternating serpentine motions. Just up and down and repeat, and the current of the water pushed you forward. Turning left or right involved curling your body in that direction. Changing elevation meant changing the up and down motions so that you went down more than up, or vice versa. The concept was easy to grasp, it was controlling his body (especially the tail) that Alex found to be most difficult.

Some time went by. Alex swam once around the garden area they were in, and joined his friends. "I think I got the hang of it." Suddenly, a mermaid with bright red hair swam up to Sora. "Hello, Sora!" Ariel greeted him.

Ariel glanced at Alexander. "Who's this?" Goofy patted Alex's shoulder with one of his fins. "This is our friend Alex. He's been traveling with us for a while, and this is his first trip to Atlantica." Alex waved half-heartedly. "Hi."

Ariel smiled at Alex. "Hello, Alex." She turned to Sora. "Do you think you can get the pendant now?" Sora glanced at Alex, who nodded. Sora grinned. "You bet. Let's go get it!"

Alex saw an opportunity. "You guys go ahead. I'll stay here and work on my swimming. I'm no expert." Donald thought about it. He had noticed that whenever they separated, something important had happened. "Okay," he finally agreed. "Don't do anything foolish."

Alex smiled a genuine smile. "You know me. I wouldn't do something rash."

* * *

It was actually rather fun, being a half fish. With gravity being virtually out of the picture, there was room for all sorts of acrobatics without worrying about hitting your head on the floor. Well, if you're watching where you're going, anyway. 

Alex did a couple of loops, and landed on the ground right behind a large rock. Rubbing his head and righting himself, he groaned, "Okay, enough theatrics..."

Suddenly, he heard a noise. Sounded like someone crying. Alex peered out from behind the rock and looked. **_It's Ariel!_** Joumae gasped. Alex nodded and put his back to the rock again. If Ariel was here by herself, that meant...

"Ariel, you poor child!" a much deeper female voice cried out. Alexander looked again, and stifled another groan.

Ariel turned to face her, rather shocked. "You're Ursula – the sea witch!"

The fat purple octopus hybrid smirked. "That's right, angelfish." Ariel looked rather frightened. "But didn't my father banish you?"

Ursula put on a fake look of concern. "How could I stay away, when I knew you were so miserable? What you need is a woman's advice."

"Yeah, like I need Donald to cast Thunder in the middle of the ocean," Alex muttered irritably to himself. Joumae shushed him.

Ariel also didn't seem to trust Ursula, so she began to swim away. Ursula suddenly added, "What if I could make all your dreams come true?" Ariel stopped and turned to face her again. "My father would never allow it..."

"Oh well," Ursula scoffed. "It mustn't be love, if you give up that easily." That seemed to do the trick. "Could... could you really help me? But how?" Ariel mumbled.

Ursula pretended to think about it. "Well... the only way to get what you want is to become a human yourself." Ariel looked unsure. "A human? You can do that?"

Ursula smiled sweetly, but it was definitely a ruse. "My dear, sweet child... that's what I do."

It was all Alex could do not to smack his own forehead in frustration. And annoyance.

Sebastion and Flounder swam into the courtyard and stared for a few seconds at what lay before them. "Dis is terrible!" Sebastion whispered to the fish beside him. "Flounder! You gotta go tell de King!"

Flounder nodded. "Okay!" He turned around, but he found himself staring at Flotsam and Jetsam, Ursula's pet eels.

"Have we got a deal?" Ursula pressed on. "I'll turn you into a human right now. All you have to do is sign a little contract."

Ariel was surprised. "A contract?" Ursula nodded. "That's right, sweetcakes. And the price is just a token. A trifle. What I want from you is... your voice."

The mermaid started. "M-my voice?"

Ursula feigned surprise. "I almost forgot – the magic only lasts for three days. You've got to get dear old Princie to kiss you before the sun sets on the third day. If he doesn't, you turn back into a mermaid, and belong to me!" She had said the last part a little too gleefully. Quickly regaining her composure, she continued, "I suppose you might find my terms a little tough. After all, you ARE King Triton's daughter. Adored by all of Atlantica! Why, you're practically guaranteed a happy life. Are you sure you won't listen to your daddy? All it'll cost you is your true love."

"Come on, sweetie pie," Ursula goaded Ariel. "This is your last chance. But far be it from little old me to twist your arm."

Alex almost lost it then and there.

"Don't listen to her, Ariel!" Sebastion shouted helplessly. Ursula slowly began to leave. "Well, now. I won't intrude any longer. I'll be on my way. You obviously don't want my help. Too bad about your prince, though," Ursula added suggestively. "He IS quite a catch..."

"Wait!" Ariel yelled. Ursula grinned. Quickly swimming over to her, a golden parchment and a quill appeared with a flick of her wrist. "All I have to do is sign?" Ariel asked. Ursula nodded vigorously.

Ariel hesitated for a moment, then quickly grabbed the pen. Looking away, she signed her name at the bottom of the contract. Ursula grinned wider, and the contract disappeared. "We have a deal! Here you go!" Flounder panicked. "Ariel! Don't!"

Sora, Donald, and Goofy swam into the courtyard. Sebastion turned to them. "Sora, please! You've got to stop her, mon!" Sora nodded and charged forward. "Wait!"

But it was too late. A vortex had surrounded Ursula and Ariel, preventing the others from reaching them. A bright light glowed from the base of Ariel's throat and floated out of her mouth. Ariel clutched her throat. The light traveled over to Ursula and disappeared into a shell in Ursula's hands. Sebastion and Flounder gasped.

The vortex dissipated. Ariel now had legs, and she was wearing a tan robe. Sora panicked. "Oh no! She can't breathe like that!" Sora swam over to her and grabbed her arm, dragging her up to the surface. Ursula cackled after them.

Slowly, Alex appeared from the rock he had been hiding behind. "Well, I guess I shouldn't be surprised." Ursula turned to face him, looking surprised. "And who might you be?"

Alex did a mock bow. "I'm Alexander. I've been traveling with Sora, Donald, and Goofy for a while."

Sebastion was outraged. "You were overhearing the whole thing and you didn't even interfere!?" he shouted. Alex shrugged. "I didn't see an opportunity."

Ursula laughed again. "Well, I guess we'll have to chat later." Black smoke appeared around her, and she disappeared from sight.

* * *

Alex sighed. "Okay, let's recap. Ariel was tricked by Ursula... again. She got turned into a human, and is with this Prince Eric fellow whom she's had a crush on all this time. And now she got to find a way to make him kiss her before the third sunset from now... without using her voice, which Ursula stole." He glanced at his audience of Sora, Donald, and Goofy. "Anything else?" 

Sora folded his arms. "You left out the part where you had been listening the whole time and hadn't bothered to do anything about it." Donald and Goofy nodded in agreement.

Alex shrugged. "So I was. There's a reason. Remember how I hadn't interfered with the events at Olympus Coliseum when I could've?" Sora nodded. "Well," Alex continued, "it's the same thing here. Everything will turn out fine if I let this play out."

Goofy looked confused. "So, uh... what do we do now?"

Alex yawned. "Keep an eye on her. Me, I'll sleep this one through. All this adventuring has worn me out."

* * *

Alex slept for most of the whole three days. He never even went to the surface to check on Ariel. All he did was work on his swimming and catch up on sleep. Frankly, he needed both. It wasn't until near the end of the third day that he decided to actually do something. 

Alex got up and stretched. "Boy, do I feel rested." Joumae groaned. **_You'd better. _**Alex glanced at the surface of the water. "Good thing, too. I'll need my wits about me today."

Alex swam up to the surface. The sunset was reflecting off the water, giving everything a golden tint. It vaguely reminded him of Twilight Town, and consequently brought on a pang of regret. He quickly pushed it aside.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy surfaced beside him, startling him plenty. "No sign of Ursula anywhere..." Sora muttered. "I wonder where that sea witch coulda gone," Goofy remarked.

The quartet swam up to the beach, where Flouder was with Ariel. Ariel had her head buried in her hands. Flounder turned to them. "Ariel's been crying for a long time."

Alex looked further down the beach. Right on cue, there was Eric and a dark-haired girl walking beside him. To Alex's dismay, the other girl was **singing**.

"_What would I give to live where you are? What would I pay to stay here beside you? What would I do to see you smiling at me?_"

The quartet ducked a little bit, just enough so that their eyes were above the water.

"_Where would we walk? Where would we run? If we could stay all day in the sun..._"

"Hey, what's up with the Prince?" Sora asked. Prince Eric's eyes were glazed over, as if he wasn't quite conscious.

"_Just you and me, wish I could be... Part of your world._"

Flounder suddenly shot up. "Look! There!"

Everyone looked. There was a shell hanging from the girl's necklace. It was the same shell that Ursula had used to steal Ariel's voice.

"It's Ursula!" Flounder cried out. "She... she must've turned herself into that girl!" Alex nodded. "Yeah, and she's using Ariel's voice to put the prince in a trance."

Sora rose up out of the water. "Okay, that's it!" He pointed his Keyblade at the girl. A beam shot out of it, breaking the shell and startling the girl. Two bright lights shot out of the shell and returned to Ariel's throat. Ariel gasped. Eric's eyes returned to normal. "What... what happened?"

"Eric!" Ariel shouted. Eric ran over to her. "You... you can talk..." he stuttered. "You're the one... The girl who sang to me."

Ariel looked like she was about to cry. "Oh, Eric, I wanted to tell you."

Eric was actually rather excited. "Of course! It was you! You're the one who... who saved me that night in the storm! Oh, Ariel. I'm sorry I didn't figure it out sooner. You're the one I love."

"Eric..." Ariel repeated. "Not so fast!" another voice protested. The two looked over to Ursula and gasped. She had become her old fat self again. Ursula grinned and pointed past them. "Do you see what I see?"

Everyone looked. Indeed, the sun had nearly set.

Ursula crawled toward them. "You're too late!" She grabbed Ariel and dragged her into the water. "Ariel!" Eric shouted, diving into the water after them. The quartet submerged as well.

* * *

Ursula continued to drag Ariel toward the bottom. Ariel had become a mermaid again. The quartet was close behind them. "Stop!" Sora yelled. 

Ursula turned around and glared at them. "Stay out of this, you fools!" She held up the contract with a tentacle. "Triton's precious little daughter signed a contract! Now, dearie..." she continued, facing Ariel and holding a tentacle up to her cheek, "let's see how beautiful you are when I'm through with you!" Sora glared at her. "That contract's no good!"

"Let her go!" someone else yelled. Ursula quickly turned around, surprised. "Excuse me!?" It was King Triton. A beam shot out from his trident, hit the contract, and sent Ursula cascading into a rock a good distance away. But the contract was still intact.

"Now, now..." Ursula remarked as she recovered, "even the great King Triton can't go around breaking binding contracts. Why, it just wouldn't do, would it?" She approached Ariel again. Flotsam and Jetsam wrapped around her arms. "Now, if you'll excuse me," Ursula added, "I have some loose ends to tie up."

"Wait, Ursula..." Triton cut in with a tone of resignation. "You win. Just promise you'll let my daughter go."

Ursula paused. As she turned to face him, she feigned confusion. "But we had a deal – unless, of course, you're offering to take her place?" She held out the contract in front of him.

Triton raised his trident. "I'm afraid... I have no choice." The trident began to glow. Sebastion panicked again. "Your Majesty!"

Another beam shot out from the trident. When it faded, King Triton's name had appeared where Ariel's had been on the contract. Ursula began to cackle as a vortex surrounded Triton and reduced him to one of her shriveled grounded monsters.

Ursula picked up the dropped trident. "At last!" Ariel cried out, "Daddy!" and swam over to Triton's spot. Ursula pointed the trident at Triton. "Who's the 'mighty ruler' of the seas now?"

Ariel glared at her. "You... you monster! Let him go!"

Suddenly, a knife flew by Ursula's arm and nicked her. She cried out in pain and looked to see Prince Eric, who quickly began to resurface. Ursula shouted, "How dare you! Pitiful, insignificant human!"

Flotsam and Jetsam tried to swim after him, but Sora got in their way. "Hey! That's enough!" Ariel swam past them and chased after Eric.

A huge cloud of black smoke appeared around Ursula. "Ha ha! Now you'll all bow to me!" Sebastion and Flounder watched in horror as the smoke enveloped Ursula, the quartet, Eric, and Ariel.

* * *

The water had now become really dark. A vortex surrounding their large battlefield prevented them from leaving. Eric and Ariel were huddled in the center. 

Suddenly, bubbles appeared between them. The bubbles became larger until Ursula blasted out of the water directly beneath them, sending them away and separating them. Ursula had become huge, and she was wearing a crown now. The trident had become equally large. Towering over them, Ursula held the trident in her hand and smiled evilly.

**_Alex, please tell me that she isn't going to sing..._** Roxas pleaded. Alex sighed and lowered his head. Joumae panicked. **_She is!_**

"_This witch is back to bring her wrath upon the sea. Triton can't be rid of me, not that easily._"

Eric and Ariel swam away and her tentacles reached the surface, sending water everywhere. Ursula raised the trident above her head. "_And like all who dare defy me, he will learn his lesson well: Never toy with a girl like me._"

The quartet rose up out of the water. Sora pointed and yelled, "You got what you deserved!" Flotsam and Jetsam surfaced near them and circled Sora. All six of them submerged.

"_Flotsam and Jetsam!_" Ursula sang. The eels struck and captured Sora. "_Loyal darlings, strong as the tide. Sweetest poopsies, hasten to my side._"

Donald and Goofy whacked the eels, releasing Sora and chasing Flotsam and Jetsam away. All that time, Alex sat there dumbstruck. "She didn't just sing 'poopsies', did she?" Sora sighed. "Alex!"

Alexander did a take. "Oh, right." They chased after Flotsam and Jetsam.

"_Right now! Mommy needs you. Crush those stupid fools, make them writhe!_" The quartet dodged Ursula's tentacles as she swung them around underwater. Alex smirked as he flipped over a tentacle, realizing that his practice had been a worthwhile effort after all.

Sora swam through the eels and turned around. He shot a beam at Flotsam and Jetsam. The beam made contact, and the eels burst into nothingness. "All right!"

Up on the surface, Ursula swung her trident over the water. Eric swam out of the way. "_What a feeble human. No, I can't believe my eyes. A stubborn royal who is fighting for his prize._"

A tentacle rose up and knocked Eric up into the air. The prince landed into a nearby boat. Ursula turned to Ariel. "_Without your precious mermaid, now you're crazy for revenge. I suppose I sympathize._"

Ursula swiped her trident at Ariel, but the mermaid ducked under the water. Eric glared at the sea witch from the boat. "I'm not gonna lose her!"

"Right!" Sora agreed, as he, Donald, and Goofy soared over the boat. "We're with you all the way!" Sora shot a beam at Ursula, but she blocked it with the trident. "_Flotsam and Jetsam!_"

Sora landed back into the water, but Donald and Goofy kept flying toward her head. "_Loyal darlings, strong as the tide. Sweetest poopsies, hasten to my side._" She swung the trident at Donald and Goofy and missed. Donald hit her chin, and Goofy bounced off her forehead. They landed back in the water.

"_Right now! Mommy needs you. Smash those stupid fools, make them writhe!_"

Sora leaped out of the water and waved at her. "Sorry, 'Mommy'... Your poopsies are toast!" Ursula gasped and swung the trident at them. The trio ducked as it swung around. The trident sparked with lightning as she raised it over her head. "_This is not the end, my dears, I swear I've just begun. It's not over until Ursula has won!_"

Alex swam as fast as he could, and burst through the water's surface. He was flying toward Ursula's face with his Lockshield in hand. "Would you just **SHUT UP**!?" Ursula tried to hit him with the trident, but Alex knocked it away. The trident landed on Eric's boat, shrinking down to its original size.

Ursula rubbed her wrist and stared at the boat. "No... it's not possible!" Alex shot Ursula a parting glance as he fell toward the water. "It's over, Ursula!" He landed back in the sea.

"That belongs to me!" Ursula shouted, turning toward Eric's boat. Eric lifted the trident and pointed it at Ursula. "All right, then... you can have it!" He threw it as hard as he could.

The trident sped up until it was a beam of light. It pierced Ursula and came out the other side. She screamed in pain and slowly sunk into the water.

The night was calm, and everything seemed to be back to normal. Ursula was nowhere to be found. Eric and Ariel faced each other. Alex knew there was a mushy scene approaching, so he went underwater. As the trio followed him, he screamed, "Good GRIEF! Ursula is a **terrible** singer! How the heck did I survive that!?"

Sora, Donald, and Goofy began to laugh. Alex could even hear Roxas and Joumae laughing. He turned around and gave them the evil eye. "WHAT!?" he bellowed.

* * *

The quartet met the following day in the undersea courtyard. "Prince Eric's a great guy – he's really brave, too," Sora commented. Alex nodded, having calmed down overnight. "How he managed to lift that trident and throw it that hard is still beyond me." 

Sebastion swam up to them. "Yes. But he IS a human." Donald sighed. "Oh brother. Not again..." Ariel and Flounder also arrived. Sora turned to her. "How'd it go with your father, Ariel?"

Ariel beamed at him. "Great! Thanks for your help. I gotta go. See you later!" With that, she swam toward the surface. Something about helping Eric with his swimming, or something like that. Sora was a little confused by the sudden exit. "Hey, wait..."

Flounder faced Sebastion. "I almost forgot, Sebastion! King Triton said this year's festival is so important that the music better be your best ever!"

Sebastion covered his head with his claws; a nervous habit. "My best ever? Hmm..." Sora had just about had enough. "All right, what's going on?" Sebastion turned to him. "You gotta do me a favor."

The crab whispered his idea to the quartet. "What?" Sora muttered. "Huh?" Donald mumbled. "But how?" Goofy queried. Alex sighed. "Great. Just great. We need Thundaga magic for that. We don't have it right now though." He turned to swim away. "We'll come back when we do."

* * *

**Disclaimer: I only own Alexander, Joumae, and the Lockshield. Every other element of this story belongs to their respective owners. Namely Square-Enix and Disney.**


	32. Arabian Dream

Chapter 31  
Arabian Dream

Alex took one step into the gummi ship's cockpit. Unfortunately, the step that was supposed to follow just never made it. Alexander fell rather unceremoniously onto the floor. The trio behind him laughed.

Of course, it hadn't been the first time Alex had been required to become used to a non-human form. He had to learn to be a lion back at the Pride Lands. And he had to be a merman back in Atlantica, the world the quartet had returned from. So of course the boy would have trouble literally getting back on his feet.

As Alex argued with his body about how it was supposed to function, Sora got into the pilot's seat and began to steer the ship toward the next world. Donald sat in his seat, and so did Goofy.

"Hey, everybody!" Chip cried out rather suddenly. "I'm picking up a strange reading." This brought everyone's attention, and Alex back to his feet.

Dale joined Chip and looked at the monitors. "Are you sure? Let me see." Chip pointed at one of them. "Look – it's all cloudy and kinda fuzzy." Dale shrugged. "Prob'ly just a glitch." Chip wasn't so doubtful. "I don't know..."

Alex really couldn't care much less, but at least it was a good sign. "Anyway, let's keep going. The next world in the order is Agrabah, if I remember correctly."

* * *

The quartet disembarked into the world, appearing in the peddler's shop. At least... it was supposed to be the peddler's shop. Instead of the mere collection of boxes and rags in an old abandoned room, it was now a shiny store with gold treasures and trinkets all over the place. 

Donald, of course, was the most distracted by the shine. He backed up into an expensive vase, which immediately threatened to topple over and break. "Wak!" Fortunately, it didn't fall.

The peddler turned to face them and shouted, "You break it, you buy it!" He recognized who he was talking to. "Oh! Hello, friends."

Sora noticed that there was plenty more gold behind the counter with the peddler. "Wow! You made out like a bandit!" he exclaimed. The peddler shrugged. "Please... I am but an honest merchant. What you see is merely the reward for my hard work."

Alex noticed that many of these trinkets looked like they had once belonged in the Cave of Wonders. Goofy looked around at all the expensive merchandise. "Gawrsh, they sure are nice."

"And they're on sale!" the peddler quickly added. "Interested?" Sora shook his head. "No thanks." He stepped up to the counter. "Listen, have you seen a guy in a black coat? Someone from Organization XIII?" The peddler looked innocent. "Who, me? Most certainly not..."

Iago, Abu, and Alladin entered the shop. The quartet turned to face them. Aladdin panicked. "Sora! Don't let him get away!"

Sora turned around again. The peddler had disappeared. Abu and Alex jumped over the counter. Abu looked around a little and shook his head. Alex shifted the gold around some. "How the heck did he get away?" he muttered to himself.

"What's going on?" Sora asked. Aladdin exclaimed, "Can't believe it... That stupid peddler let Jafar out of the lamp!"

"Jafar!?" the trio shouted in disbelief. There was a long pause, as if they were all having some weird, disjointed flashback. With the exception of Alex, who had never personally met Jafar.

When the moment passed, Aladdin mumbled, "You guys better be careful." Sora was confused, having just come out of the flashback. "Huh?"

"I'm sure Jafar wants to take over Agrabah again, but I know he's out for revenge, too." Sora sighed. "I guess he's still sore about the whole lamp thing..." Alex chuckled.

"Iago was there when Jafar was released," Aladdin mentioned, turning to face the bird. "Okay, Iago. Spill it."

"Hey! I told you everything I know!" Iago protested. Aladdin didn't seem convinced. "This is your one and only chance, Iago. If I find out later that you've been lying or hiding things from us, we're through. I'll never speak to you again!" Iago seemed to break under the pressure. "I can't take it!" he shrieked. "I know where Jafar is!"

"Where?" Goofy asked him. Iago hesitated. "Uh, er, I mean, that is, I, um... Ack! I really shouldn't..."

"Iago!" Aladdin yelled. Iago sighed. "He's in the desert ruins." Sora nodded. "Let's get the jump on him. Lead the way!"

* * *

Alexander, of course, knew exactly what was supposed to happen. But he didn't say anything as they made their way to outside the palace walls. In the distance across the desert they could see the desert ruins. But there was a sandstorm blocking any entry besides. 

"What a disaster!" Iago blurted out just a bit too eagerly. "We're just gonna hafta turn back." Aladdin ignored him. "There's gotta be a way..."

"Aw, c'mon, kid, that's an easy one!" Everyone looked around for the source of the familiar voice that had come out of nowhere.

"Al, ol' buddy, ol' pal!" Genie flew down to them, swinging around Aladdin. "This is what having a genie for a best friend is all about! I mean, how can you leave me on the sidelines at a time like this!?"

Genie disappeared, and reappeared nearly as large as the palace walls. "Live large! Wow 'em, Al." He appeared next to Aladdin again, this time small. "Give 'em the old razzmatazz! What do ya say, kid?"

"Hey, Genie!" Sora called out. "Sora!" Genie exclaimed. He appeared as his normal size again. "Want to see a little something I call 'Sandstorm Sweep'?"

The trio nodded vigorously. "Uh-huh!" Aladdin agreed. "Take it away, Genie!"

Genie turned to face the sandstorm, fully poised. "ALAKAZA-" He paused, and his shoulders drooped down. "You know? One lousy sandstorm is just too easy." He flicked a finger back in the direction of the storm, and a beam of magic twirled over to the sandstorm. When the magic collided, the storm dissipated in a puff.

Everyone was still impressed. They all gasped in surprise. Iago groaned, realizing that they had to go now. When they looked, Genie was nowhere to be found. "How about giving me a challenge next time, eh Al?" Genie's voice echoed from overhead.

Alex grinned**_. Oh, no. Interference time._** "Hey, Genie!" he shouted. "I think I might have something!" Genie suddenly appeared next to him. "I'm all ears!"

Sora turned to face him. "What's going on, Alex?" Alexander cleared his throat. "Well, Jafar's planning on taking over Agrabah, right? So why would Jafar drag us all the way out to a desert ruins?"

Iago immediately looked worried. Alex's grin grew wider. "Probably to drag us out of Agrabah so he can distract and ambush us. While his Heartless keep us busy in the ruins, he'll double back and start attacking Agrabah." Iago sighed, realizing that Alex hadn't given him away.

Aladdin looked confused. "But isn't that why we're going in the first place? To get the jump on him?" Alex flinched. He hadn't considered that explanation. But there was an easy way to resolve it. "Well, what I'm stating is a possibility. How about this... Genie and I will wait here in Agrabah and wait for Jafar. The rest of you go to the ruins. If Jafar comes here, we'll ambush him!" He punched his palm for emphasis.

Genie looked excited. "Genie versus genie! Good idea!"

Donald began to tap his foot. The duck was far less clueless and for more paranoid than Goofy and Sora were. He was beginning to notice a trend in where Alex interfered. "Okay, we'll leave it to you two." Aladdin, Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Iago started walking through the desert to the ruins.

Alex turned to Genie. "Can you let me know when Jafar arrives?" Genie nodded. "Sure thing." The genie disappeared in a puff of magic. Alex leaned against the palace wall and waited. He knew it was going to be a long wait before Genie arrived with the news.

* * *

_Some time later..._

Jafar watched as Jasmine struggled against her chains. She was pinned to the palace gate. "Just wait, Jafar!" she shouted. "You'll get exactly what's coming to you!"

"Indeed I will, Princess," Jafar replied coolly. He bent down until he was in her face. Sneering, he declared, "All of Agrabah will belong to me, while you..." He laughed evilly. "You, my queen, shall weep at my side for all eternity!"

Jasmine tried to look past Jafar, to see if anyone was coming to help her. Jafar rolled his eyes. "Oh, please. Right about now... your precious Aladdin is whispering your name, with his last breath."

"Don't be so sure of that."

Jafar turned around, a shocked look on his face. "Genie!" He glanced at Alexander. "And who is this street rat?"

Alex glared back. "Well, it's not 'street rat', for one thing. I'm Alexander. I happen to be a friend of Sora." Jafar did a take, and grinned. "A friend, eh? Well, let's see how he reacts when he finds you at the mercy of my power!"

Several Luna Bandit Heartless appeared. Alex rolled his eyes. Jafar thrust his snake scepter into the air. "Attack!" he ordered. Genie cast his arms out with great flourish, and bolts of lightning struck all of the Heartless.

Even Alex was surprised. "That's pretty neat," he remarked. Genie shrugged. "Still not a challenge, though..." Jafar looked outraged. "Oh, you want a challenge, do you?"

Suddenly, the rest of the party ran into the courtyard, brandishing their weapons. Jafar saw Iago roosting on Goofy's shoulder. "You dare defy me! You useless bird!" The eyes of Jafar's scepter glowed with red electrical energy, and he pointed it at Iago. Goofy and the bird hid behind Goofy's shield. Jafar quickly shifted his target to Aladdin and fired.

"Al!" Iago shouted. He flew in front of Aladdin and took the hit. He was shocked by the blast and fell to the ground. "Iago!" Goofy yelled.

"You'll all be joining him..." Jafar muttered, as a dark red smoke billowed up around him, "VERY soon!" The smoke shot up into the sky. Jafar's human form disappeared, and the genie Jafar began to rise and grow to his full size.

Sora did a take. Jafar ripped off one of the palace's pillars and threw it at Sora and Aladdin. Aladdin was quick to run, but Sora was still dumbstruck. Fortunately, the Magic Carpet swooped down and picked Sora up before the pillar crashed. Sora rose up into the sky to face Jafar.

"Genie, can you help me get up there?" Alex asked. Genie nodded, and snapped his fingers. Alex suddenly felt weird, like there was less pressure around his body. "Go on, jump!" Genie urged. Alex jumped straight up, but nothing special happened. Genie rolled his eyes. "No, not something dull like that. You know, give it a spin!" With that, Genie started spinning around, rising into the air to join Sora.

Alex thought about it. He jumped again, but he rotated his body as he did it. Alex shot straight up into the sky. "Woah!"

* * *

Jafar cackled as he displayed his power, making beams of light and magic go everywhere in all shapes and sizes, obviously excited by all the abilities he had. He finally faced Sora, Alex, and Genie, ready to fight. Sora stood on Carpet, Genie was floating there, and Alex... well... 

It was difficult to explain Alex's type of movement. It wasn't so much flying as it was gliding. He found that he could glide straight through the air, and he could jump continuously. Looking back on it, Alex realized it was the exact same system as it was in the second stage of the final battle with Xemnas. But that's later on.

Sora and Alex began to fly over to Jafar. Genie shouted, "ALAKAZAM!" and started punching the air really fast. Whenever he punched, a fist-sized blast of energy raced toward Jafar. Jafar blocked the all of the attacks.

But Jafar missed the purpose. Sora flew under Jafar's sight and started bashing his abdomen. For a genie, that's the most sensitive spot besides the head. Once that had taken a few hits, Jafar was stunned. Sora flew down and grabbed Jafar's tail.

"What... What are you doing?" Jafar mumbled as Sora spun around him with his tail. Suddenly, Sora pulled on it really hard, spinning the genie around many times and disorienting him. Alex flew over to Jafar's head and started to bash it with his Lockshield. He got a few combos in before Jafar recovered and got up again.

The world around them went black for a second. Then they found themselves in a dark cloud, with pieces of the palace flying toward them. Jafar was quite a distance away, probably controlling the debris. Sora and Alex took a few hits.

Genie waved his hands around again, and the debris froze in the air. They twitched now and then as the two genies fought over control over their movement. With Jafar's concentration elsewhere, the dark cloud disappeared in a flash of light. Sora took the hint and started flying toward Jafar. Alex was a little slower on the uptake, but started approaching the boss after a moment.

Jafar noticed the two fighters coming and temporarily let go of the palace pieces. This gave Genie plenty of time to send them hurtling toward Jafar. The red genie found the debris crashing into his abdomen, stunning him. Sora spun Jafar around with his tail again. Alex arrived just in time to deliver the finishing blow.

Jafar began to glow and tremble, as if he were about to explode. "No..." he moaned. "How can I be defeated _again_... by a pack of _filthy_ **street rats**!?"

Sora gave Jafar a parting glance as he flew back down to the city on the Magic Carpet. "Don't mess with street rats!"

Jafar sparked for a few seconds, then shattered, disappearing without a trace. The black lamp on the ground was enveloped by darkness for a second. When the darkness faded, the lamp was gone.

"Another boss gone," Alex muttered, landing back on the ground. He experimentally tried to jump, but Genie's boost was gone. "And good riddance to this one, too." He turned to Genie. "But there's still a couple things to take care of."

Donald nodded. "Yeah, we still need your help!" Sora folded his arms. "Who's gonna fix Agrabah?" Genie thrust his fist into the air. "Oh yeah! One super-duper spruced-up Agrabah comin' right up! You won't even recognize the place when I'm through with it!"

Aladdin glanced at Genie nervously. "Just like it was, please." Genie sighed. "Really? Same old same old?" Aladdin and Sora nodded decisively.

"All right." He rose up and pointed his hands at the town. Magic shot out of his hands and twirled around the city. All the debris disappeared, and the holes in the walls and buildings were fixed. "Et voilà!" Genie yelled. "Next time let me put in a few swimming pools, 'kay?"

* * *

Aladdin stretched and sighed. It had been a long day. Sora glanced at him. "I guess Agrabah's all right now." Aladdin nodded. "Yeah! Thanks, guys." 

Everyone looked at Iago, who was resting on one of the bazaar's stalls. "Hey, you behave yourself, got it?" Sora muttered. Iago sighed. "I most definitely got it! No more looking out for number one. I'm reformed!" He rose up into the air and joined them. "I wanna be a good friend, like Genie, but I can't do anything to help you. What kind of a friend is that?"

Sora shook his head. "Oh no – it's not like that, Iago. Friends don't have to 'do' stuff. As long as you have fun hanging out together, that's all that matters."

Aladdin looked at the trio. "So... what do you guys do for fun?" Donald and Goofy put on the weirdest, funniest faces they could manage. "We do this!" Donald replied enthusiastically. Aladdin stared, rather shocked. "Uh... that's not quite what I meant." Sora put his hands behind his head. "Well, anyway..."

Iago groaned. "Ow, my beak..." Goofy recovered from his funny face. "Gawrsh, Iago. I hope ya didn't hurt yourself." Iago began to fly away. "Well..." he coughed, "at least I can still fly." Iago kinda wobbled in the air. Goofy started to walk under him, holding his hands out to catch the bird.

The others did a take. "Look out!" Donald shouted, realizing that Goofy wasn't looking where he was going. Goofy bumped into one of the stalls, fell into it and broke the counter, crushing the merchandise and forcing the whole structure to collapse. Everyone else winced.

"Ooh!" Genie's voice echoed out of nowhere. "Was that my cue? Am I on? C'mon, Al, lemme build a freeway or something!" He was obviously bored again, and that spelled trouble in itself. "Genie!" Alex yelled. "I need your help with one more thing!"

"Really?" Genie asked, appearing next to him again. "What is it now? I mean, for letting me fight Jafar and show off my moves, I owe you something, right pal?" Alex shrugged. "Well, there's this gate called a Dark Corridor that allows the Heartless and Nobodies to appear here," he explained. "Usually, I find an object that triggers the gate to appear so I can seal it, but I haven't been able to find one. Could you be able to reveal it for me?"

Genie thought about it. "Sounds good. Lemme try something..." With a shout, he clapped his hands together, making magic burst from the contact.

Suddenly, Alex's Lockshield appeared in his hand. It moved of its own accord, forcing Alex to hold it straight out in front of himself. Everyone else disappeared. A light flashed from the Lockshield, and the shining image of the Heartless emblem appeared beneath his feet. The strange wind began to blow against him while his surroundings were enveloped by light. He looked around at the starry expanse, which had become strangely familiar now.

The Dark Corridor appeared out of nowhere above him. Alex looked into it, and saw the mass of Shadows inching toward the opening. Alexander twirled the Lockshield around and then finally pointed it at the keyhole. A halo surrounded his weapon for a moment, then it closed in and shot out a beam at the Dark Corridor. When it collided, a dark green wall formed itself and covered up the opening. Then the whole space lit up, and Alex found himself back in Agrabah.

Genie had disappeared. "Sora! Donald! Goofy! Alex!" his voice echoed above them. "You guys are too much! If you're ever in the mood for some more cosmic razzle dazzle, give me a shout, okay?" Donald smiled. "You got it!" he shouted back.

Aladdin smiled too. "Well, you've done it again, Sora. Don't forget about us, okay?" Sora shook his head. "I won't," he assured him.

"And Sora..." Aladdin added, "about that friend of yours, the one you're looking for..." These words seemed to startle Sora. Aladdin stepped forward and put his hands on Sora's shoulders. "You'll find him. Trust me."

* * *

**Disclaimer: I only own Alexander, Joumae, and the Lockshield. Every other element of this story belongs to their respective owners. Namely Square-Enix and Disney.**


	33. Savannah Pride

Chapter 32  
Savannah Pride

Chip and Dale were the first ones to greet the quartet back in the gummi ship. And boy, did they have some news for them. "It's that weird reading from before," Chip explained, pointing at some panels and monitors of which Alex didn't know the significance of. "See, I knew it wasn't a glitch."

Dale nodded vigorously, rather excited. "Yeah!" His shoulders drooped a little bit. "But it's still all kinda cloudy and fuzzy." Chip shrugged. "Hmm... Well, we know one thing for sure."

Dale gave Chip a funny look. "What's that?" Chip beamed at the quartet. "Whenever Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Alex go out and help folks, the reading gets stronger!" Dale folded his arms. "Gee, I wonder why."

All four fighters were rather confused. But Alex had a pretty good idea how helping others helped them find The World That Never Was. Hearts were rather powerful things in this universe, and they were even more so when they were connected. So by strengthening the connections, it became strong enough to reveal Organization XIII's stronghold. Alex wasn't sure exactly how it was revealed, but at least he knew something.

"Hey, Sora," Chip started, breaking Alex's train of thought. "We're gonna find out more about this reading." Dale added, "And while we do, you fellas just keep on questin'!"

Chip 'n' Dale began to jump up and down in excitement. "We really are counting on you, guys!" Alex nodded. "Well, let's get going. The next world is..." - he shuddered – "the Pride Lands."

* * *

The quartet walked through the Savannah in their animal forms. Alex had gotten used to the form quite a bit faster than he had before, so they made good time. Along the way, Donald suddenly gasped. Three familiar hyenas were running toward them. 

It was Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed. Shenzi sighed as they slowed to a halt. "Oh, it's you guys. Man, we were hoping you were a meal." Sora wasn't daunted at all. "Hiya!"

Banzai was outraged. "Don't gimme any of that 'hiya' stuff! Thanks to you clowns, we're back to scavenging scraps for a living." Ed began to cackle insanely. Shenzi sighed and started to walk away. "C'mon, it's not that bad. I enjoyed that week-dead elephant we had yesterday."

"Hey, how's Simba?" Sora called after her. Shenzi began to laugh. Banzai also chuckled. "We gotta laugh every time we hear that dude's name." Shenzi turned to face him. "Ooh. Say it again!"

"Simba!" Shenzi laughed a little harder. "One more time!"

"Simba!" The quartet rolled their eyes as they watched the obvious progression. "Simba!" Now all three of them were laughing hysterically. Sora had heard enough at this point. "That's enough!" The three hyenas stopped laughing.

They turned to leave. "Go on then," Shenzi proposed, "see for yourself. Simba is one wishy-washy king." Banzai nodded. "Yeah, I bet about now, even some of those high and mighty lionesses were wishin' they'd gotten themselves a different king."

"Gawrsh," Goofy remarked as soon as they were out of earshot, "whaddaya think coulda happened?" Sora turned to face Pride Rock. "Well, let's go find Simba and see."

* * *

The quartet arrived at the base of Pride Rock. But not all was well. A large darkness began to manifest itself in front of them, and a dark image of Scar appeared in its place. Everyone did a take. "Scar!?" Sora shouted. He ran toward it, but it disappeared into a black smoke before he could reach it. "Huh?" 

"A ghost?" Donald supposed. Goofy thought about it. "We'd better tell Simba about this." He looked up at the tall rock in front of them. "Wonder if he's up there..."

They proceeded to the king's den. On the way, one of the lionesses confronted them. "Have you come to see Simba?" she asked. Sora was still tense. "We saw Scar's ghost!" he blurted out.

The lioness didn't seem all that surprised. Instead, she hung her head. "An omen like that could only be foretelling the end of our pride. Yet... King Simba won't do a thing. I guess being the son of the great King Mufasa doesn't necessarily mean he's ready to rule the kingdom himself."

Sora, somewhat put off, tried to comfort her. "Trust me, Simba will think of something." The lioness shook her head. "The time for thinking is past. We need him to take action – as his father would have done. He ruled with courage and pride." There was a shadow of a smile on her face. "I remember it like it was yesterday... The mighty Mufasa..."

Sora was still stubborn. "Simba'll do all that, too. You'll see!" The lioness's small smile disappeared. "I'm not so sure." She walked away. Alex sighed. "Well, let's go see how Simba's doing anyway."

The quartet entered the king's den. Simba was in the back, thinking and moping to himself. He glanced at the quartet, smiling slightly. "You came back..." They stared at each other for a few moments. "Are you okay?" Donald asked. "You don't look so good," Goofy explained. "Hey, Simba," Sora started. "Why don't we team up and do something about that Scar ghost? Seems like everybody's worried about it. So, now's your big chance to show 'em what you're really made of!"

Simba stood up and growled. "That doesn't concern you!" he shouted, startling the quartet, Alexander especially. There was an awkward pause. "Sorry..." Simba mumbled, calming down. "It's okay," Sora replied softly.

Simba turned away, thinking to himself. "I just wish I knew what my father would do." Goofy cut in, "But he's not here, Simba. It's all up to you now. And that means the most important thing is what you're gonna do being the king. Not what you're father woulda done." Alex grinned. "My thoughts exactly."

This seemed to make an impact. "So you're saying..." Simba repeated to himself, "it's all up to me..." Sora nodded. "See, there ya go!"

"Exactly!" Timon and Pumbaa said in unison, coming up beside the quartet. "We know your dad was a great king, and all," Timon admitted. "But now it's your turn." Timon walked over to him. "Remember what I taught ya. 'You gotta put the past behind you.' It's time to go out there and show everybody things are gonna be just fine!" Sora smiled. "Yeah, you can do it!"

"You gotta live for today!" Timon shouted. Pumbaa walked toward him too. "And find your own path!" Simba continued to think. "Live for today..." he muttered. "And find my own path... not my father's..."

Alex nodded, getting a little tired of the repetitious exchange of philosophies. "That's right." Nala also came up behind them. "I'm glad to hear you say that, Simba." She stood beside Simba and faced the quartet. "Promise me you'll help Simba in any way you can."

"As long as Sora handles the dangerous parts!" Timon added. Sora nodded without hesitation. Nala faced Simba. "I'm counting on you Simba... and so is our baby."

Alex rolled his eyes and sighed. "Great!" Timon moaned. "Now we're going to have to babysit!" Everyone laughed for a good long while at that.

When the mirth died down, Simba got an idea. "Let's go see Rafiki first. I'm sure he'll be able to tell us something about that ghost."

* * *

The five comrades entered the Stone Hollow, which was only a short distance away from the king's den. Rafiki the baboon greeted them. "Oh ho ho! The king – is he ready to be king?" Simba nodded. "I think so." 

Sora started the questioning. "Can you tell us about Scar's ghost?" Rafiki shrugged. "Oh, yes... the ghost. A being with no body. It is created when the evil heart of Scar meets the hesitating heart of Simba." Simba looked a little ticked off. "Hesitating?"

Rafiki grinned. "Ohhhh... You thought you were not?" Goofy nudged Sora, getting his attention. "Gawrsh," Goofy remarked, "that ghost sounds just like a Heartless." Sora shrugged. "I don't know."

"You're right, you don't," Rafiki cut in. "But you do know it is upsetting. And it is upsetting the hearts of everybody in the Pride Lands. You may not know what it is, but it still IS. This world, it is full of many such things. And these things, a king must face. It is the test that has been set for you, Simba."

Simba was surprised. "That's all? Come on. You have to tell us more about the ghost..." Rafiki shook his head vigorously. "No, not today! But the hyenas in the elephant graveyard know more. Does not matter, though. There is little the Simba of late can do."

Sora scowled. "Aw, don't say that! Not when he's ready to try!" Rafiki stroked his goatee. "In his head, perhaps... but what about his heart?"

Simba gave up. "Forget it, Sora. Let's head for the elephant graveyard."

* * *

The elephant graveyard had gone under some changes. For one thing, there were small fires everywhere. It looked like the hyenas had made a permanent camp of some sort here. "Woah..." was all Sora could say. 

They spotted Shenzi, Banzai and Ed. "Hey you!" Donald yelled. Banzai groaned. "Aw, c'mon, can't you guys just leave us alone?" Simba got out of his pouncing stance. "Do you three know anything about Scar's ghost?"

Shenzi paused. "Huh? Scar's ghost?" Ed began to laugh hysterically. "Maaaybe," Banzai replied. The truth was obvious to all of them. "You DO know!" Sora yelled. The three hyenas immediately dispersed, running away as fast as they could.

The three hyenas' goal this time was to keep as far away as they could. They weren't as fast as Sora, Simba, or Alex were, but they were plenty nimble. It took a while before any of them caught up with one of them, and once they got a few hits in the hyenas took off once more. It was a good long while before they had rounded all of them up and were able to interrogate them.

Banzai sighed, exhausted from the beating. "Oh no..." he cried out in a mock wail. "I guess you caught us ALL." He chuckled. "What're we gonna do?" Shenzi muttered, adding to the inside joke. Ed cackled some more. Simba was thoroughly annoyed by now. "Tell me about Scar's ghost!" he demanded.

"Sorrrry," Banzai muttered. "We don't know nothin'." Before Alex could point out that it was a double negative, Shenzi spoke up. "Ooh, wait! It's coming back to me! That's the one that only hangs out around fraidy cats. Right, Banzai?" Simba growled. "Enough!"

Ed laughed even more as a large darkness gathered beside the quartet. "And there it is!" Shenzi announced. "Must be a fraidy cat around here somewhere!" she teased. Everyone turned to face Scar's ghost.

Sora glanced at Simba. "Simba, do something!" he ordered. But Simba didn't move. He instead stared at the ghost with an expression of dread. _"How does it feel to be king, hmm?"_ Scar's ghost teased Simba. _"Why, you must be a truly **inspiring** ruler by now."_ Simba backed away as Scar continued, _"After all, you ARE the son of the great Mufasa."_

Simba suddenly ran away. "Where're you going?" Sora yelled after him. _"Ah, Simba..."_ Scar sighed, _"running away as always."_ Sora continued to watch Simba run. "Simba!" The ghost disappeared.

All three hyenas laughed heartily as they left the scene. Alex glared at them as they left. Goofy sighed, ignoring the hyenas. "Gawrsh, Rafiki was right." Sora looked at him, confused. "You mean... Simba's still unsure?"

Goofy nodded. "Seems like. Do ya think there's some way we can help?" Sora thought about it. "Hmm... We should start by talking to Simba some more. Let's head back to the Pride Lands."

* * *

"Now this situation seems familiar," Goofy remarked as they trekked through the Savannah. Alex nodded. This was where they had talked about Alex's family in the real world. "I'd rather not continue with that, guys." 

Sora shrugged. "It's alright." They walked on in silence for a while longer. Then Donald spoke up. "Hey, Alex. How can something like a ghost exist? Do you have any idea?"

Alex stopped for a moment to think about it. "Well," Alex started, "it's gotta be a Heartless, considering that the rest of him is dead. Might be that his dark heart is still lingering around, using Simba's heart as a support."

This surprised the others. "How can Scar's heart do that?" Goofy asked. Alex continued to walk toward Pride Rock. "I think there's still some of Scar's darkness in Simba's heart, or something like that. And I've seen many examples of how powerful the connection between two hearts can be. So Scar's Heartless is connecting with the darkness in Simba's heart to sustain and manifest itself."

Alex stopped again, realizing something. "But it usually only appears around Simba so that it's near the darkness that sustains itself. But in the game, it becomes a Groundshaker Heartless near the end of this." This was rewarded with a take from the others. Alex continued, "So it must be getting more darkness from somewhere else."

There was a long pause. **_Duh,_** Joumae muttered, **_the Dark Corridor._** Sora looked confused. "The Dark Corridor?" Alex suddenly scowled. "It must be almost open if Scar's ghost will be able to extract darkness from it soon. Let's get going."

* * *

The quartet returned to Pride Rock. Nala and Rafiki greeted them. Sorta. "Where's Simba?" Nala demanded. Sora faltered. "Well, uh..." 

Rafiki chuckled. "Oh ho ho! He ran away! I knew it would not be easy for him. To face his fears, he must go somewhere where the only thing to think of is what to do, not what others think of him." Sora rolled his eyes. "Why didn't you just say so?"

"But where's Simba now?" Donald asked. "Hey, I know!" Timon shouted, he and Pumbaa coming up behind them. "He's at the oasis. It's our favorite hangout!"

Sora smiled and nodded. "Got it!" Pumbaa grinned. "I'll lead the way!"

Timon panicked. "Oh, no you don't! Simba will smell you coming a mile away. And if he's smart, he'll run for the hills!" Pumbaa sighed. "Oh... right."

* * *

They ran into the oasis. There they found Simba backed up against a cliff, with Scar's ghost pressing forward. A familiar scene. "Simba!" Sora yelled, leading the way as the quartet ran toward him. Scar's ghost disappeared. 

Simba hung his head. "It's no use. I'll never be the king my father was." Sora approached him. "But Simba... That's not what you're supposed to be. You can't be Mufasa. You can only be you. Everybody believes in you as a king. They just want to see what you'll do. And if anyone's saying they liked your father better, it's because you haven't done much yet. That's all."

Simba sighed. "I know that." Sora was annoyed. "Then stop moping and DO something!" Simba looked away. "I can't!" he retorted.

There was a long pause. "...Fine," Sora muttered. "Let's go, Sora," Donald suggested. Sora turned to leave. "Yeah. Why stick around if he's not even gonna try?" Goofy stayed there while Sora, Donald, and Alex walked away. "C'mon, Goofy!" Sora ordered, leading the way out.

When Simba looked away, the quartet quickly hid behind a log. Alex stayed low and waited. Then he noticed something right beneath the log, half-concealed. It was a Keyhole. Alex summoned his shield and adjusted it with his paws. A light shot out from the keyhole in the center of the Lockshield and collided with the world Keyhole. There was a faint clicking sound, and the Keyhole dissipated.

Alex heard some darkness appear where Simba was. Apparently, Scar's ghost had appeared again. _"A hesitant king will one day lose all his friends."_ Alex did a take and stared at Sora. It was Sora doing the deep, ominous voice! _"King Simba the doubtful..."_ Donald added. Alex winced. Donald's speech impediment almost ruined the impression.

_"Worried by a silly ol' ghost..."_ Goofy continued. Alex groaned, though he made it as quiet as he could. The trio stared at him, waiting for him to contribute his part. Alex shrugged and growled, _"Ooh, Simba the do-nothing king..."_

Simba growled. "No!" Alex had to chuckle now. Simba was buying this! _"Try and stop me,"_ Donald retorted. Simba pounced the ghost, and it dissipated into light and darkness. Sora and the others approached the incredibly confused Simba. "You did it!" Sora shouted. "The ghost is gone!" Donald smiled. "We knew you could do it!" Goofy nodded. "Hooray for Simba!"

Simba took a good long look at them, realizing what they'd done. "You know," he said finally, "I'm really lucky to have friends who'll stand by me... and help me see clearly. My father... wasn't so fortunate."

"There you go again," Sora reminded him. Simba winced, and continued, "I mean... Everyone here, and in the Pride Lands, wants me to succeed. Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Alexander. Pumbaa, Timon, Rafiki... Nala. You all want what's best for me. But my father always had Scar lurking behind his back, trying to cut him down. I've got to make the most of my blessings, and rebuild this kingdom."

"Are you gonna say it, or do it?" Sora demanded. Simba grinned. "Wait and see."

"Simba!" Timon shouted, running into the oasis. "Simba! Come quick! There's a bazillion ghosts of Scar haunting the Pride Lands! Everybody but Nala high-tailed it outta there. And now she needs your help."

Alex nodded. "That's our cue. The Dark Corridor must be nearly open." Simba raced past Timon. Timon sighed as Sora and the others came up behind him. "Our little Simba..." he mused, "all grown up and finding his place in the world..."

Simba looked back at them. "Nice try. You're coming, too!"

* * *

Pumbaa stood between Nala and one of Scar's ghosts. They were at the edge of the rock, so they were cornered. Pumbaa was shaking, and he would break under the stress soon. Fortunately, help had arrived. "We're here!" Sora shouted. "Where's Simba?" Nala shouted. 

The quartet bowed and made way as Simba stepped forward. Nala gasped and smiled. "I've come back, Nala," Simba announced. The ghost of Scar walked over to him and stood in his face. Everyone watched for a few tense moments as they glared at each other. "Get out!" Simba muttered. The ghost disappeared. Sora grinned. "Way to go, Simba!"

Simba and Nala ran toward each other. While they shared a mushy scene, Alex and the others stared at the Savannah. A humongous darkness was gathering there. "The Groundshaker..." Alex muttered. Simba looked at the quartet. "Are you with me?"

Sora and the others smiled and bowed. "Now and forever, Your Majesty!" Sora replied. Alex immediately got up and started planning a strategy. "The Groundshaker's fairly large, but I don't know if that'll be the summation of all the Scar ghosts. Donald, Goofy, you guys stay back and guard Nala and the rest of the residents. Sora, Simba and I will take down the Heartless."

* * *

The trio of lions ran up to the darkness just as the Groundshaker Heartless took form. It resembled a dinosaur of some sort, but there was basically a huge shaman on top of it. The shaman disappeared into the main body. "The core's in the head!" Alex shouted. 

The head suddenly lit on fire, and the Groundshaker chased after them. Sora and the others had a rather interesting time dodging all of the Heartless's attacks, either from the stomping of its feet or from the shaking of its head. When Sora was cornered against a cliff, the Groundshaker tried to stomp one foot on top of him. Sora leaped up and parried the foot with his Keyblade really hard. Then he leaped up and threw his Keyblade at the thing's neck, severing it for the moment and bringing the head down.

Simba and Alex started to attack the head, making sure to make as much damage as they could. The Heartless was stunned, taking the hits for about ten seconds before it rose up again. The Groundshaker shone, and the core shaman creature appeared on its back. The trio ran up to its legs and leaped up, using the appendages to reach the Groundshaker's back.

As soon as the shaman saw them, it started rotating its double mask and waving its arms. Beams of electical energy began to shoot down to them, eventually knocking Simba off. But Alex and Sora managed to dodge them. The two fighters started to beat up the mask, which was its weak point. After a good number of hits, the mask split in two and tumbled onto the Groundshaker's back. The main body was stunned. Alex and Sora attacked the masks as much as they could.

Suddenly, the two halves came back together and reattached themselves to the main body. Then the shaman cloaked itself, and the space above the Groundshaker's body began to warp. Alex knew what was going to happen. "_Reflega_!" he shouted. The whole space sparked with electricity, shocking Sora and knocking him off. But Alex's barrier absorbed the damage as long as he could. When the shaman appeared once more, the spell shot the damage back at it.

Alex jumped off and joined his friends. The Groundshaker began to stumble around in pain. It looked like it had been defeated. Eventually, the rocking of the body threw the shaman creature off. When the shaman landed on its face, the mask split in two and the body stopped moving. The shaman began to glow with a dark aura. Alex summoned his Lockshield. "Show me the Dark Corridor!" he yelled.

Alexander grabbed the Lockshield's handle with his teeth. Everyone else disappeared. A light flashed from the Lockshield, and the shining image of the Heartless emblem appeared beneath his feet. The strange wind began to blow against him while his surroundings were enveloped by light. He looked around at the starry expanse, which had become familiar now.

The Dark Corridor appeared out of nowhere above him. Alex looked into it, and saw the mass of Shadows inching toward the opening. This time, though, the dark creatures were nearly there. Alexander twirled the Lockshield around with his tail and then finally pointed it at the keyhole. A halo surrounded his weapon for a moment, then it closed in and shot out a beam at the Dark Corridor. When it collided, a dark green wall formed itself and covered up the opening. Then the whole space lit up, and Alex found himself back in the Savannah.

A dark heart floated out of the Groundshaker, and the Heartless completely disappeared.

* * *

Simba and Nala stood at the edge of the overhanging rock, proudly gazing upon their kingdom. The quartet and Rafiki stood at the back staring at them. "Simba seems fine now," Sora remarked. Rafiki grinned. "Ha! The king has returned! The Pride Lands will not forget King Simba's courage. Or the courage of those who fought beside him." 

Simba turned to face Sora. They could all sense a goodbye coming. "Do you think your quest will ever be over?" Sora shrugged. "I don't know..." The Keyblade lay at his feet. "But I think, as long as the Keyblade stays with me... I'll have to keep fighting."

Rafiki stared at the Keyblade with curiosity. "Ahh... The journey never ends. That is the great Circle of Life." Sora was a little put off. "Never ever?" Rafiki stroked his goatee. "The secret to victory... is a strong heart."

There was a long pause. Then Rafiki shouted, "Go on, go on, go – go then!" He laughed. "Go on, get out! Yes, yes! It is time! Your fight continues..." He thrust his staff into the air.

Sora turned to face Simba with new determination. "Till we meet again, Your Majesty." Simba nodded. "I hope that's soon." Alex turned to leave. "It will be." Sora smiled. "So long!" The quartet ran until Pride Rock was out of sight.

* * *

**Disclaimer: I only own Alexander, Joumae, and the Lockshield. Every other element of this story belongs to their respective owners. Namely Square-Enix and Disney.**


	34. A New Day Is Dawning

Chapter 33  
A New Day Is Dawning

Alex sighed and sat in one of the gummi ship's seats. "Well, that takes care of that." He held up two golden orbs. "Hey, guys. I found these in the Groundshaker's corpse, so to speak."

Sora immediately got out of his seat and picked one of them up. It disappeared and embedded itself into his body somewhere. Alex's did the same, and he felt his hair stand on end slightly from the electrical energy entering his body. "A Thunder Element!" Sora exclaimed.

Alex nodded wearily. "Yes, now we have Thundaga. And we can finally finish off the Atlantica trials." Sora immediately got back into the pilot's seat and steered the ship toward Atlantica. "Guys," Alex announced, "I'm not going in there this time. I've had enough, really. I'll come in near the end of the performance to take care of the Dark Corridor, okay?"

Reluctantly, Sora nodded. When they arrived at Atlantica, the trio disembarked, leaving Alex alone. Well, not as alone as he had first thought.

There was Chip 'n' Dale on the ship, working out the strange reading that they had detected earlier. There was also Jiminy Cricket writing in his journal, whom Alex had very seldom spoken to. The official chronicler of Sora's journeys didn't accompany them to Atlantica. And then there was Joumae, but why bother mentioning him?

_**Because...**_ Joumae replied rather testily, **_I'm the Lockshield's will. You don't really want to tick me off, do you? I might just decide to leave._**

Alex laughed. _Good point._ But they both knew it was a joke. Joumae wouldn't really leave Alexander. The Lockshield was Alex's weapon. The direct equal and opposite of Sora's Keyblade. It was rather interesting to think about.

Then Alex sighed. After Atlantica, they will have pretty much finished taking care of all the Disney worlds. Then there was Hollow Bastion, Twilight Town, and The World That Never Was. And then Kingdom Hearts II would be done. It sounded so simple to think about, but it wasn't. Alex knew by now that those three worlds would be the toughest of all.

After all, this was a reality now. Not just mashing the X button on the PS2 controller constantly. Alex had needed to develop a fighting technique of his own during all this. How else could he fight Heartless and Nobodies and all the others?

Soon, Alex began reflecting on the whole journey. He was an Interference. And yet, he had made very few changes to the game. Okay, so the Twilight Town and Final Fantasy gangs knew about the video game. But that was really the only major difference in the game's story. Virtually everything else had remained the same.

_In fact,_ Alex thought as he glanced at the gummi ship's bubble to see his reflection, _it's more like me who's changed._ He had gone into this thing being an out-of-shape, messy, nerdy gamer. But now he was an experienced warrior with a decent control of magic. And as far as looks went, he was now perfect Square-Enix protagonist material. Especially with the spiky hair. Alex could never get over that detail.

And just how long had he been at this? Well, there was six days at Twilight Town. Then there were the three days at Atlantica last time. Also, since each world visit usually took a couple hours to finish, that kind of added up to two more days. That meant this was the eleventh day of being an Interference. Or perhaps the dawn of it.

Alex stepped up to the front of the ship. Suddenly, he heard Chip speak. "What's that? That big... thing?" Alexander brought the world map onto the bubble's screen. He gasped. The World That Never Was had appeared, just a short distance away from Twilight Town. And the map showed a strange, winding connection between Twilight Town and The World That Never Was.

Dale was excited. "Maybe it's the source of the weird reading we picked up before!" Chip nodded, and pointed at where Twilight Town was on the map. "And there's something funny about Twilight Town. I'm seeing two of 'em!"

Alex nodded to himself. That didn't mean that Chip needed glasses. That meant that the alternate Twilight Town was revealed as the connection to The World That Never Was. Dale looked at Twilight Town too. "Look! A another huge energy reading! And it's coming from someplace near the town."

Chip turned to Alex. "I dunno what's going on, but it sure looks like there's some big trouble brewing at Twilight Town!" Alexander suddenly noticed something on the map. He zoomed in on the image and gasped again. There was a closed gate on the path between Hollow Bastion and Twilight Town. And there was a huge mass of blocky white ships beneath it. He slammed his fist on the dashboard. That path had been closed off by Organization XIII.

"Chip! Dale!" he shouted. The two chipmunks stood at attention. Alex paused. "I'm gonna check on Sora and the others," he decided. "Can you guys work on making a blueprint for a gummi battleship?" Chip 'n' Dale nodded. "You bet!"

Alex nodded. "Thanks." He disembarked and entered Atlantica again.

* * *

Alexander entered the Undersea Courtyard again. There was loud applause coming from the palace, which meant that the musical had just finished. Alex had no time to waste. Kicking his dolphin tail, Alex swam as fast as he could toward the palace. 

A multicolored bubble had appeared above Sora. A twilight halo surrounded it. Before Sora could take out his Keyblade, though, Alex came up behind him with his Lockshield. "Hey, don't leave me out of this!" he protested. "Let's get both jobs done at once!" Sora smiled and summoned his Keyblade.

Everyone else in the room disappeared. The Lockshield and the Keyblade shone, and the crown symbol as well as the Heartless symbol appeared beneath them, overlapping. The strange wind blew against the two of them as they were enveloped by the light. When they looked again, they were both in the starry expanse.

The bubble shot out two beams; one light, one dark. The beam of light shot up and formed a keyhole-shaped gate, with light shining from it. The beam of darkness formed the Dark Corridor, with the mass of shadows threatening to pour out of it. This was Sora's and Alex's first time seeing the other's gate.

Alex and Sora flipped backwards in their merman forms and pointed their weapons at their respective gates. A halo surrounded each of their weapons for a moment, and closed in. A beam shot out from each of the weapons. The Lockshield's beam collided with the Dark Corridor, forming a dark green wall over it. The Keyblade's beam shot into the gate, making light shine from it and spill into their space. When the light faded, they were back in Atlantica.

Ariel came up behind them. "Sora, what's happening?" Sora turned to face her. "A new pathway has opened." Alex nodded. "And you won't have to worry about Heartless for a long time."

Sebastion did a take. "What? You gonna go? Dis is goodbye?" Donald shook his head. "I won't do it! We'll never say goodbye!"'

Goofy began to sway. "That's right! A-one, two, three, four..." Alex decided to go with the flow and sing with them. "_Even though we're hittin' the road, our worlds are all connected,_" the quartet sang. "Which means..." Sora added. "_We are free to come and go._"

"And sing!" Donald shouted. "_So don't be sad, and always know, we'll come back soon to say hello!_" the four of them finished.

There was a long pause, and everyone stared at Alex. Sora suddenly grinned. "See? You aren't that bad of a singer!" Alex blushed. "What? I am not!"

Ariel shook her head. "You're a bass, for sure, but you're a really good singer." She smiled at him. Alex groaned loudly, and the rest of them laughed. Alex gave up and shrugged. At least they were done with Atlantica.

* * *

**Disclaimer: I only own Alexander, Joumae, and the Lockshield. Every other element of this story belongs to their respective owners. Namely Square-Enix and Disney.**


	35. Scherzo Di Notte

Chapter 34  
Scherzo Di Notte

"Woah... what's that?" Sora asked, pointing at the world map. He was indicating The World That Never Was. Donald and Goofy also regarded the map. "Wak!" Donald cried. "And how come the path to Twilight Town is sealed!?"

Alex sighed. "It seems we've found the Nobodies' stronghold, The World That Never Was." He shrugged. "Unfortunately, the only connection to that world we have is within Twilight Town. And the Nobodies are blocking the path to keep us from interfering."

Alex looked around. "Chip! Dale! How's that battleship blueprint coming along?" Dale appeared. "Smoothly!" he quickly responded. "But it'll be a while before it's done."

Alexander nodded slowly. "Well, we've taken care of the Dark Corridors in most of the other worlds... except for Hollow Bastion."

Sora sat down in the pilot's seat and started steering the ship toward the world in question. "So... Hollow Bastion it is, then?" he confirmed.

Alex flexed his hand, as if he was ready to summon his Lockshield. "Yeah. There's some loose ends to tie up."

* * *

The first thing the quartet saw was a bunch of Soldier Heartless running around. They quickly disappeared, but they left the four travelers confused. "Wait a sec..." Sora muttered. "I thought everything supposed to be under control here!" 

They heard something behind them. "Hey, look!" Donald pointed out. All of them turned around to see a few Claymores going crazy. But instead of the blue that they recognized, these Claymores had a sick yellow tint. Something was wrong.

"Must be Organization XIII again," Sora deduced. Alexander cleared his throat and shook his head. "No, Sora, Organization XIII has nothing to do with this." This got everyone's attention. As all eyes turned to him, Alex sighed and said, "Let's go find Leon. I don't want to have to explain everything twice."

* * *

The quartet made their way to the Borough. Donald entered the clearing leading to Merlin's house. He squawked and jumped back as a Claymore zoomed past him. A Strafer Heartless appeared in the clearing, followed by a couple more. The quartet brought out their weapons. 

As they fought, more Heartless appeared. But they had one thing in common. All of the Heartless were the types from Space Paranoids! Strafers, Magnum Loaders, and Devastators, for the most part. But they were all defeated in a rather short time.

"I'd say you've gotten a lot better, Alex," Goofy remarked as they took down the last Devastator. Alex wiped the sweat from his brow and shrugged. "I don't know about that..."

The door to Merlin's house slid open, and Yuffie slowly stepped out. "Come on in!" she urged them. Sora was a little confused. "Wait just a second... What happened to this place?" Goofy nodded. "Didn't those Heartless look like the ones from Tron's world?"

Yuffie glared at them. "Just get inside!" Startled by the sudden edge in her voice, the quartet quickly obliged.

Cid was typing furiously at his computer, and Merlin was watching over him with a steady eye. Yuffie ran over to him and shouted, "Hurry up, Cid!"

Cid groaned. "Give me a second!" Merlin waved his wand frantically. "Confound it! Hurry!" Cid glared at him, his annoyance rivaling the irate wizard's. "Why, you...!"

Sora ignored the conflict and asked, "What's going on?" Cid stopped typing and turned around to face them. "Talk about yer good timin'!" Yuffie's expression betrayed the distress she felt. "The MCP is wreaking havoc inside the computer."

"Not again!" Donald whined. Cid nodded. "According to Leon, anyway..." He paused, making sure he had their attention before launching into his tale. "He went on over to Ansem's study to see what all the ruckus was about," Cid explained. "Turns out the MCP is using the data in that computer to crank out Heartless. The MCP's been messin' around with the town's control system, too."

Yuffie sighed. "That MCP sure doesn't know when to quit, does it?" Cid shrugged. "That's a computer program for ya."

Sora nodded, taking this all in. "How's Tron doing?" Yuffie shook her head. "We can't reach him. We figure he must have been forced onto the game grid."

"Knowing the MCP," Alex muttered, "it probably isn't a particularly fun game, either." Donald hung his head. "Awww..."

Sora took the initiative. "We'll go check on Tron." Cid grinned at them. "Thanks, kid. We're puttin' together an MCP Eradication program. I got a hunch it's almost finished, too."

Alex couldn't help but grin back. They were going to fight a program with a program. Cid was more versatile than he had first seemed in Kingdom Hearts. Too bad Alex hadn't played Final Fantasy VII, where Cid had seen probably seen a lot more action.

But not all of them were so reassured. "Well," Merlin said as he glared at Cid, "I hope your hunch is right for once!" Cid glared back. While they fumed, Yuffie added, "Listen, we're going to need Tron's help when that Eradicator's completed..."

Sora smiled at her. "Don't sweat it. We'll make sure to tell Tron!" Merlin broke his glare just to say, "Remember, boys – we're counting on you." Sora did a mock salute. "Roger!" Donald, Goofy, and Alexander nodded, and they all raced to the castle.

* * *

But they got as far as the postern before they ran into another problem. Yuna, Rikku, and Paine were there, and they were rather irked. "Liars!" Yuna shouted, pointing at them. 

Sora was quite surprised by their sudden accusation. "Wha–?"

Rikku cut him off. "Leon doesn't have any treasure!" Paine sighed and looked away. "And we fought for you guys."

Goofy glanced at Donald. "Donald..." The duck looked back and said in his defense, "Well, I had to tell them something!" Alex chuckled, but returned his attention to the Gullwings.

Yuna put her hands on her hips. "I don't see how we're going to work this out." Sora shrugged. "So what should we do?" After a pause, the Gullwings huddled in a circle and began to babble amongst themselves. All Alex caught this time was "trick us like that", "take responsibility for their actions", and "see how they like that." Joumae made a long, loud groan as they talked endlessly, making Alex and Sora wince. Though Alex couldn't say he didn't have the same feelings. But he was determined to be patient.

His patience paid off. The three girls turned to face them, with Yuna stating, "We're just going to take YOUR treasure." Okay, maybe it hadn't paid off.

"But we don't have anything!" Sora protested. Paine smirked. "You sure?" Rikku flew over to them and inspected Sora. "Hmm... Let's take a look!" She searched Donald, who glared at her the whole time. "Mm-hmm..." she mumbled. Rikku looked over Goofy and muttered, "Oooh!" Finally, she flew around Alexander, who remained perfectly still.

Rikku nodded to herself and flew back over to Yuna. "Hey, Yunie. I took a look, and sure enough..." That was all Alex caught of the whisper; the rest was incomprehensible. Yuna nodded and thrust her fist into the air. "Okay, we've decided!" She pointed at the quartet. "The Gullwings are taking all of your items!"

All of them were shocked, though Alex couldn't say that he wasn't expecting it. But he still made a big deal out of it anyway. "You've gotta be freakin' kidding me!" he screamed.

Yuna glared at them and put her fists on her hips. "Oh, foofie!" she exclaimed. Rikku shook her head. "This stinks!" Paine sighed and nodded. "So not cool..."

Sora went for apologizing. "Look, sorry we tricked you, but..." Paine cut him off. "Forget about it." The quartet stared at her, surprised. "Leon told us the whole story," Paine continued. "He said your journey's been pretty rough." Yuna nodded, the anger gone from her expression. "So it wouldn't really be right if we took your things." Rikku smiled at them. "We'll root for you. Here, this is from us."

Rikku pointed at one end of the postern, and a treasure chest appeared in an explosion of light. Yuna waved at them. "Bye! Good luck on your journey!" The three of them posed, and disappeared in a large flash of light.

Sora walked over to the treasure chest and tapped it with his Keyblade. It popped open, and a small trinket flew out of it. Alex snatched it out of the air. "The Gull Wing keychain..." he remarked, staring at it. Sora looked at it. "Is it any good?"

Alex shook his head, putting the keychain in his pocket. "It's better than the Kingdom Key, but not as strong as some of the others. Anyway, we've wasted enough time here. Let's go."

* * *

Leon and Aerith stood in front of the door to the Heartless Manufactory, making sure no Heartless took over Ansem's study. Hearing something enter the room, Leon whirled around and stood in a fighting stance. 

It was the quartet. "Gawrsh," Goofy exclaimed, "it's only us!" Leon sighed and put down his gunblade as the quartet walked in further. Aerith gestured toward the door. "You can't talk to Tron if this room gets taken over."

Leon got right down to business, as was his nature. "Did you check in with Cid?" Sora nodded. "Uh-huh." Leon paused. "And the Eradicator?"

Alex smirked. "It's almost done." Aerith smiled at the welcome news. "Great!" She glanced at Leon. "Say, Leon, why don't you work with Cid? I have this place under control."

Leon was a bit skeptical. "Are you sure? All by yourself...?" He got a steady glare from Aerith in response. "...Er, sorry. It's all yours."

As Sora inquired about Tron's well-being, Alex wandered to the ledge to the left of the computer room and looked at the canyon below him. It was ridiculously deep, but for some reason it didn't really frighten him. Maybe all this adventuring had helped him overcome his acrophobia.

Alexander's mind also wandered off. "How could Ansem's apprentices manage to create a machine that cranks out Heartless? How is that possible?" he muttered to himself.

**_Well, Cid had implied that there was data in the computer that the MCP was using to create the Heartless,_** Joumae suggested, unusually serious. **_So there must be some kind of template data._**

Alex shrugged, waving at Leon as he ran by to leave. "Sure, but that's only a program. What they'd really need is a lot of..." He paused, and took one good long look at the machinery on the sides of the canyon. The walls looked like a bunch of capsules bunched together. Within those capsules was some kind of pinkish-purple energy.

"...hearts!" Alexander exclaimed, slamming his fist on the railing. This grabbed the attention of the others. "That's what Ansem's apprentices did all that time!" Alexander continued. "They collected hearts! Dark hearts! I mean, look at all these specimens they found! With this many hearts, Organization XIII would..." Alex paused. Kingdom Hearts would be a cinch with all of these hearts. Why hadn't they thought of that? They had never tried to collect all these hearts...

Alex thought back to the fourth day at Twilight Town, when Saïx had beckoned him to go with Organization XIII. What if he had chosen to go with them instead? He might have come up with this idea while on their side... and then... Well, it made Alexander shudder to think about it.

Alex continued with his original hypothesis. "They gathered them in this machine... so that they could power that Heartless Manufactory!" he finished, pointing at the door ahead. Without warning, Alexander ran through the door, ignoring the warnings of Aerith who called after him.

* * *

Alexander ran into the Manufactory, and gasped at what he saw. On the bottom was one huge platform, with five large red circles on it. Above the platform were devices that shot bolts of energy at those circles on the platform. Each time they shot, a Heartless was created. The devices were connected to the walls, which meant that Alex's hypothesis was most likely correct: the Heartless Manufactory actually used hearts to create Heartless. 

"Alex! Watch out!" Sora shouted after him. Alex turned to face him, and realized the problem. He had been so caught up in his revelation that he had wondered onto the main platform itself. And right on cue, a bright light shot up between Alexander and the others, separating the two groups.

"Crud!" Alexander groaned as he summoned the Lockshield, ready to fight. Two Magnum Loaders appeared and headed straight for him. Alex spun around and whacked them both with the face of his shield, instantly defeating both of them. A greater number of Heartless appeared, greatly outnumbering Alexander.

"I guess I'll just need to use it..." he muttered. "Darkness!" His head and limbs snapped back, and light shot out from his body. Then his whole body became wrapped in darkness, and his eyes changed to bright yellow orbs, like those of a Heartless. Darkness flowed freely from his body, and he twitched much like a battle-ready Shadow. He had entered Anti Form.

Sora and the others watched as Alexander used his increased speed and power to absolutely decimate the Heartless. But they wouldn't stop coming. And Aerith had noticed that something was wrong. "Some of those Heartless weren't just created by the machine..." she mumbled. Donald took a close look, and saw that she was right. Heartless were appearing from out of nowhere, adding to those manufactured by the machine. Alex was _attracting_ Heartless.

Sora decided to do something about it. "Alexander! Snap out of it!" Hearing this, Alexander whipped around and stared at them. All the Heartless disappeared, and the barrier went down. But Alex was still in Anti Form.

Alex continued to stare at all four of them. Sora, Donald, Goofy, Aerith... ripe hearts for the taking...

Alex staggered, and held his head in his claws. What the heck was he thinking?! His... instincts... were telling him to steal their hearts with his dark power. In his last few moments of lucidity, he realized that he was on the brink of becoming a Heartless.

"Sora..." Alex muttered, slowly stalking toward the Keyblade Master the Heartless feared so much. Sora summoned the Keyblade and stood in a defensive fighting stance. Alex stared at him, then lunged forward suddenly, shouting, "Stop me!!"

Sora hesitated, then took a swing at Anti Alexander. With Alex's inexperience and madness, he failed to dodge the blade, and it caught him in the stomach. Alex doubled over and landed on the floor face down. The darkness dissipated as he reverted back to his normal form. He was breathing heavily.

Everyone backed away as Alex stood up slowly. There was silence for a few moments, before Donald broke the silence by shouting, "What the blazes was **that**!?" Alex sighed and hung his head. "My darkness... The darkness in my heart got the better of me. I'm sorry." They remained silent as they hurried back to the computer room, with the Heartless Manufactory still operating behind them.

* * *

Sora stood in front of the terminal. The MCP's warning message was still above his head, reading: "IGNORANT USERS; OBEY THE MCP". 

"We'll be there soon, Tron," Sora promised, beginning to type. Roxas sighed in his mind. **_We're going to be left behind again, aren't we? We won't convert into data._**

**_Yeah,_** Joumae grumbled, **_what are we going to do while you're gone? It gets boring outside both your heads._** Alex and Sora were surprised. _You guys are still conscious while we're in Space Paranoids?_ Alex thought, his expression still a bit gloomy.

**_Well of course we're conscious!_** Joumae shouted, making the two flinch. **_We're your counterparts, one way or another._**

This gave Alex an idea. "Roxas, Joumae. I need your help with something." Because he had said it out loud, this caught the attention of all of them. "There's one more Drive we have to acquire. It's called Final Form. In the game, it happens kinda randomly... but once you use it once, you're able to use it at will since. But I don't know how the mechanism works."

**_So why should we work on it?_** Roxas asked. Alex shrugged. "Apparently, the opportunity was only open after Sora and Roxas actually made contact in the game..." This was the clincher. The Final Form was somehow related to the existence of their alternate selves. "So you guys work on that while we're gone, okay?"

Sora finished typing, and pressed the Enter key, then ran over to the device that would transport themselves. Alex's head drooped as he related the events of the past few minutes. Goofy patted his back as the device began to shine. Then four beams shot from the device and impacted the quartet. They were frozen, diced up into pixels, then sucked into the computer cube by cube until they had completely disappeared from Hollow Bastion.

**To be continued...**

* * *

**Disclaimer: I only own Alexander, Joumae, and the Lockshield. Every other element of this story belongs to their respective owners. Namely Square-Enix and Disney.**


	36. Byte Bashing

Chapter 35  
Byte Bashing

Four cylindrical lights appeared in the pit cell, leaving Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Alexander in their wake. Alex admired his costume once more. It was a pretty interesting outfit.

"Gawrsh, I hope Tron's okay," Goofy remarked worriedly. Sora turned to him and nodded. "Me, too. Let's head for the game grid." He walked over to the computer terminal in front of them and inspected it. After a few moments, he turned back and exclaimed, "Great! The terminal works!"

"Let's go!" Donald screamed, breaking Alex out of his reverie. Alexander put on a serious expression, then faltered. He was still a bit scarred from the Anti Form incident earlier. The others ignored this while Sora typed in the command to summon them to the game grid.

* * *

Back in reality, Cid had returned to typing relentlessly on his computer. He was working on the MCP Eradicator program for Tron. Without this, the entire town would be destroyed. The fate of Hollow Bastion rested on his shoulders. If only some people would just understand that... 

The door burst open, and Cid paused just long enough to see Leon walk in. "Finished?" Leon asked quickly. Cid returned to typing. "Would be," he replied irritably, "if it weren't for the old loon's magic."

Merlin was immediately outraged. "OLD loon you say!?" he retorted. The "old" part had been uncalled for, apparently. "I'm tryin' to work here!" Cid shouted back angrily, annoyed that the wizard wasn't appreciative of just how important his work was.

Merlin pointed his wand at Cid. "Oh ho-ho-ho," he chuckled evilly, "I'll show you who's old!" A bright energy collected on the tip of his wand as he twirled it around, and he fired the bolt at Cid.

Cid punched one last key dramatically, and a compact disk popped out of a slot next to him. He grabbed it and jumped out of his seat, shouting, "Done!" And at that moment, Merlin's magic hit him in the back, sending him hurtling to the floor with a shout and riddling his computer with sparks.

Leon rubbed his forehead with his hand, trying to maintain his patience. Cid slowly got up, holding out the CD to Leon. "There ya go, Leon," he groaned. "One homemade program. A loony wizard special," he added with an edge to his voice. Leon took the CD and inspected it curiously.

"This had better work," Merlin muttered. Leon looked at him and said, "I'm off." Merlin nodded. "Be on your guard!" he advised him. He shot a glance at Cid, who flinched. Leon ran back out the door. Cid ran away from Merlin as his computer caught on fire.

* * *

The quartet teleported to the game grid. There were walls erected near them, giving them a relatively small space for a fight. Sora looked and saw Tron fighting some Heartless. "Tron!" he cried out. 

Tron tossed his Identity Disk at an enemy. Quickly turning to them, he yelled, "Careful...! Watch out!" He caught his weapon right before a Devastator's lightning attack caught him in the back, sending him to the ground. The quartet brought out their weapons, though Alex hesitated before doing so. "Hold on!" Sora ordered the stunned program.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy charged forward and defended Tron. Alex ran forward a little bit, but was cut off by some Magnum Loaders. The Interference stared at them, his expression laced with fear. One of the Magnum Loaders attacked, and Alexander tried to block it. But the attack made it past his shield, and Alex was thrown to the ground.

Alex flinched as he expected more attacks to come, but all he heard was a blade crashing through the Heartless. Sora lowered his Keyblade and held out his hand. "Are you alright, Alex?" he asked. Alex took his hand and pulled himself up. Looking around, he saw that the rest of the Heartless had been defeated. "I'm alright, just..." he trailed off.

Sora nodded solemnly. "A little afraid of the darkness?" Alex sighed.

* * *

The five fighters returned to the pit cell. Tron turned to face them and said, "You really saved me." Sora put his hands behind his head. "Don't mention it!" Tron looked them over, and finally asked, "Where's Kairi?" The others flinched, and Alex hung his head. "She got... kidnapped by our enemies." Tron nodded and decided not to ask further. 

Donald looked around. "What's going on here?" Tron scowled. "The MCP is ready to wage all-out war against the Users. What's been happening on the outside?"

Alex folded his arms. "Well, the Heartless Manufactory on the surface has gone completely berserk. The town's control system is also malfunctioning." Sora put up a hand to draw attention to himself. "But," Sora added, "Cid's working on a program that can de-rezz the MCP. Once we pick it up from the I/O tower, he thinks we can use it to stop the MCP for good."

Tron thought about for a moment, then smiled. "Let's try it!" Sora smiled back. "Great!" Then Tron suddenly asked, "So who's this Cid?"

Sora shrugged. "He's a friend of ours. Leon, Merlin, Aerith, Yuffie... They're all on the outside worrying about you, Tron."

Tron looked up at the ceiling, as if he was looking through to the surface. "I must have a lot of User friends," he decided. Sora nodded.

"That program oughta be done by now, don'tcha think?" Goofy proposed. Donald stomped his foot. "To the tower!" Tron became serious again. "Let's go!"

* * *

Leon ran up the hill to the postern, with his gunblade in one hand and the CD in the other. Two Strafer Heartless appeared on the postern, but Leon slashed them both before they got an attack in. When a Devastator Heartless appeared in his path, he jumped up and slammed his gunblade down on it, sending it crashing to the ground and dissipating into darkness. Leon continued to run to the computer room.

* * *

Tron led the way as the quartet followed him into the I/O tower. The Communications Room was just ahead, where the program would be uploaded. "Almost there!" Tron announced as he ran. 

They were brought to a sudden stop as a bunch of Heartless appeared, surrounding them. The group got into a fighting stance. "Outta the way!" Sora yelled.

Alexander stared at the Strafers in front of him with a sickened look. Sora noticed this and said, "Hey, Alex. How about we Drive?" Alex looked at him in surprise, but considered the idea. After a quick moment under the circumstances, he nodded. Sora shouted, "Light!"

Alex felt the strangest sensation of being drawn toward Sora, and blacked out for a moment. When he regained consciousness, he suddenly realized that he was looking through Sora's eyes. Sora's costume had changed to a dark red, with a brighter red circuitry design. It was Valor Form. He brandished the two Keyblades in his hands, and charged at the Heartless.

_This is pretty neat,_ Alex admitted to himself. It was interesting, sharing the same body as Sora. He could feel all that Sora was feeling. And, to some extent, he could control the body a bit. To be specific, he could enhance Sora's original movements if he matched them. That's what the whole point was, as he found out. If he didn't help Sora's body attack, it couldn't pull off the feats that Valor Form was capable of. He had found that out the hard way.

The Heartless were all defeated, and Sora reverted. Alex, not expecting the sudden change, fell to his rump. "I have to agree with Donald on this one. It's a little nauseating." Donald threw his hands up into the air. "Finally, someone agrees with me!" Everyone laughed, but then realized the situation they were in. They all ran to the Communications Room.

* * *

Leon ran up to the keyboard of Ansem's computer and began to type frantically. But nothing he did ever got a response. "Warning," the MCP's voice stated. "User control is terminated indefinitely." 

Leon typed some more, then slammed his fists on the keyboard in frustration. "No good!" he complained. Aerith walked over to him. "Leon, let me try." Leon did a take, then slowly nodded. He gave her the CD.

As Aerith approached the terminal, the MCP blared again, "This is your final warning. Stop at once." Aerith grinned. "Bon appetit!" She placed the CD into a slot next to the keyboard. "Don't talk with your mouth full," she stated in a mocking scolding tone. Leon rubbed his forehead.

The MCP was caught off guard. "What... what are you loading?" it demanded hesitantly. Aerith turned to Leon, who could only fold his arms and smile.

* * *

Sora, Donald, Goofy, Tron, and Alexander stared at the platform in the Communications Room, and the hole in the ceiling above it where uploaded programs usually came through. Tron shrugged. "Nothing's come in yet." 

"Leon!" Sora called out. "Come onnn!" Suddenly, the cavity began to shine, catching Tron's attention. "There!" Alex was excited now. "All right!" he exclaimed as Tron jumped into the pillar of light that appeared.

Tron pulled his Identity Disk off his back and held it over his head. After a moment, the Disk began to shine and floated up, disappearing into the hole above him. When it came back, it was shining even brighter. Tron caught it again, and the pillar of light disappeared.

"What's it like?" Goofy asked. "This is very strange..." Tron remarked, holding the shining Identity Disk in his hands. Donald smirked. "That's Merlin's magic!" the duck stated matter-of-factly. Alexander laughed at that. "Huh?" Tron mumbled as the Disk lost its shine.

He turned toward Sora. "There's a power booster for me!" He placed the Disk on his back as he continued, "And flight routines for the solar sailer!" Sora tried to process this information. "Meaning... we're set?"

Tron jumped down from the platform. "Well, like you Users say... we won't know till we give it a try!" Sora smiled and nodded. "We'll need a sailer to reach the MCP," Tron added, "so let's get to the simulation hangar!"

* * *

The solar sailer was a rather interesting vehicle. It was a flat platform with two transparent sails sticking out from the front. The sailer, according to Tron, rode on waves of light itself. It was a rather delicate operation, but it was the only way to reach the Central Computer Mesa. 

Tron typed away at the controls at the sailer's front, and they slowly sailed out of the simulation hangar. As they slowly accelerated to their maximum speed, Sora, Donald, and Goofy began to look around at the digital landscape zooming by. Admittedly, it was rather impressive.

"It's really no time for sightseeing, guys," Alex warned them. "We have to keep a lookout. The MCP won't let us just waltz in." Sora, who had been looking over the edge of the sailer, grinned sheepishly and sighed. Then he gasped as a Devastator Heartless rose up on his side of the ship and landed on the solar sailer. Everyone brought out their weapons as more Heartless appeared.

Alex shouted, "We have to defeat them quickly! If the solar sailer gets too heavy, it won't be able to fly! It'll slip off the light we're riding!" Sora, Donald, and Goofy glanced back at him, giving him meaningful looks. Alex was giving advice that he learned from the game. That meant he was back to his old self.

Alexander, reassured by their confidence in him, charged forward and slashed at a Devastator with the edge of his Lockshield. The others also began to attack, supporting Alex. It turned out that Tron had received a Thunder Boost ability from the upgrade, so his attacks were also much more potent.

All in all, the Devastators were their biggest worry, considering they were the heaviest. With so much attention on them, those Heartless didn't get many chances to attack. And the others were much weaker, so they were beaten easily anyway. By the time they had defeated the last Heartless, the solar sailer was slowing to a stop. They had arrived.

Everyone looked up at the circular building of the Central Computer Mesa. "The MCP is straight ahead," Tron informed them. Sora glanced at him. "Time to settle things for good."

Alexander chuckled. "Y'know something... This'll be the equivalent of sealing a Keyhole in this world." Goofy looked at him. "How do ya figure?" Alex shrugged. "Well, if we defeat the MCP, the system will be liberated from its control. And since the MCP represents the Heartless force in this data world..." He trailed off, leaving the obvious deduction to them.

Donald glared at them. "Enough speculation! Let's get going!" Alex sighed. "Yes, sir," he responded sarcastically.

* * *

The quintet ran down the narrow path into the mesa. They stopped at the edge of the glowing pit, and stared at the spectacle in front of them. It was two giant red spinning tops, one extending down into the pit and one in front of them, connected to a very small core in the center. It was hard to tell with the spinning, but it looked like the top part had a face. 

Sora and the others turned to the left, where they saw Sark staring at them. "Who was that?" Sora whispered to Tron. "Sark," Tron whispered back. "The MCP's number two."

"Tenacious little bugs!" Sark declared. "Your time is up. Prepare for de-resolution!" With a wave of his hand, four Strafers appeared next to him. The quartet charged at Sark and the Heartless, and Tron tossed his Identity Disk. Sark yelled, "Data Transfer!" and disappeared in a burst of red data, transporting himself to a spot away from the battle. Sark picked up his own Identity Disk and threw it at them.

Alex saw the Disk incoming, and brought his Lockshield up to block it. The Identity Disk hit the shield and bounced off. Alex quickly spun around and whacked it in midair, sending it flying back to Sark. The enemy program was surprised by this counterattack, and ended up being hit by it.

Alexander looked at Goofy. "Goofy! I have an idea!" Goofy ran over to him and quickly listened to Alex's idea. Goofy tossed his shield up into the air, and Alex hit it with his own. It went speeding to Sark, who was still stunned by the previous attack. The shield hit Sark in the gut and bounced away back to Goofy.

Sark slowly stood up. He was weakened severely, and his Heartless had been defeated. "You're very persistent, Tron," he moaned in pain. Tron glared at him. "I'm also better than you."

Sark staggered. "We... would have made a great team..." he remarked. Tron's Identity Disk began to glow, and he tossed it at Sark. The Disk glanced off Sark's helmet, knocking him to the ground. Sark's body sparked, then stopped moving.

Tron slowly turned to face the spinning top structure in front of them. "Now for the MCP!" Sora was rather surprised. "This thing is the MCP?" Tron nodded gravely. "That's it. Ugly, isn't it?"

The MCP suddenly spoke. "Tron. Don't you understand? We don't need Users. We've advanced – they're superfluous. Be a part of me, and together the world will be ours to control!"

Tron shook his head and stepped forward. "MCP. You still don't get it, do you?" The MCP stopped spinning and looked down at all of them. "Sark." When the program didn't reply, he realized what had happened. "Sark! All my functions are now yours!"

A purple light entered Sark's body, and it started to spark. At length, Sark began to stand up. When he stood up to his full height, the others gasped. Sark had to be about ten feet tall now! He was gigantic!

Panels appeared at the edge of the pit, preventing any attacks aimed at the MCP. It was merely the quintet versus Sark right now. "Eliminate all threats!" the MCP ordered. Sark began to stalk toward them. Sora charged at Sark and began to attack his shins. What else could he do? But it seemed to be effective; after a few strikes, the shin began to look busted up.

Following Sora's example, the others attacked Sark's other shin before he could do anything. In a few short moments, Sark was on his knees. With that, everyone focused their attacks on his head. Alex knew Sark wouldn't be stunned for long, and he was right. "Corrupt data restored!" Sark announced as he stood up again, his shins perfectly repaired.

Sark slammed his hands on the ground, and the area around them darkened. Alex shouted, "_Reflera_!" just in time as huge pillars of electricity shot up at all of them. The others were knocked away, but the attack reflected off Alex's barrier. The spell shot bolts of light at Sark's shins, damaging them a bit. A few more attacks from Alex's Lockshield, and Sark was down on his knees again. The others returned and attacked Sark's head some more.

Sark soon had enough. He staggered back and floated a bit into the air. "Data... error... detected!" he stuttered as he became stunned. Alex turned to a panel separating him from the MCP and started bashing it as quickly as he could. The data soon crumbled from the damage.

Sora noticed the opening. "Tron!" Tron nodded and threw his Identity Disk straight out in front of him. Sora pointed his Keyblade straight at it, and Tron placed his hand on Sora's shoulder, yelling, "Running executable!" A large beam of data raced toward the MCP's small core between the two spinning tops. As soon as it made an impact, the MCP began to moan as his data was slowly being deleted.

The panels of the wall began to rise and spin around. Alex knew that they would soon drop down in a different position and block their attack. Sure enough, the panels stopped spinning and slowly dropped down. But Alex wanted to change the rules this time. "_Strike Raid_!" he yelled, tossing his spinning shield at the panel. Again and again in short succession, Alex bashed the panel from a long range. The panel broke right before it collided with Sora and Tron's beam.

"Donald! Goofy! Take out the other panels!" Alexander ordered. The two Disney protagonists nodded and began to do just that, destroying as many panels as they could to make an opening.

Alex suddenly noticed that Sora's grip on the Keyblade was getting shaky. It was probably getting difficult to keep the attack going. But Alex had an idea. He placed his Lockshield right between Sora's Keyblade and Tron's Identity Disk. Alex also placed his hand on Sora's shoulder. The Lockshield hung in midair as it amplified the attack. The beam got a bit thicker, and it was apparently doing more damage to the MCP. Alex knew that while the attack was going, the MCP couldn't heal Sark, so there was no worry there.

Soon, the beam dissipated, and the MCP's core disappeared as well. The MCP turned a bright blue and spun around. In a moment, it dissipated in a pillar of light. Sark also sparked and faded away into oblivion.

Tron jumped up and thrust his fist into the air, quite overjoyed. "We did it!" he cheered. Sora was somewhat amused by this display. "I see Tron has a silly side, too," he told the others.

Tron turned to face them, and cleared his throat. "I learned it from you," he replied, gesturing at Sora. Alex laughed. "Well, who else would you learn that from?" he remarked.

Tron shrugged. "Of course, I do have my silly limits." Sora grinned. "Okay, then I'll tweak your program when I get back to the User world." Alex did a take. He just couldn't fathom Sora being a programmer. Tron also became a little worried. "You? Maybe we better not try that," he suggested with a chuckle.

"Aww... How 'bout it, guys?" Sora asked the others. "Singin' Tron? Dancin' Tron?" He emphasized the last one with a spin, making Alex laugh. Donald was also excited. "Yeah!"

Tron laughed, realized there was no getting out of this one. "Okay, okay, fine. But before I crash..." He got everyone else's attention. "Sora, Donald, Goofy, Alex..." He looked up at the sky of the data world. "...and all the Users out there... Thank you. You really helped me. You made me so much stronger. You taught me what friendship is truly all about. And I'll never forget it."

As he continued, Tron grinned. "As soon as I met you, I knew we were going to defeat the MCP and free the system." He walked over to Sora and held his hand out to him. Sora slowly took Tron's hand, but was suddenly jerked forward as Tron pulled him into a big hug. Sora was more than a little surprised. "Uh..."

Tron let go. "Isn't this what Users do when they're sorry to say goodbye?" Sora thought about it. "Uh... it's a first for me."

"Gawrsh, Tron," Goofy cut in, "it's like a promise that we'll see each other again real soon." Tron nodded. "Okay. Well, then..." Tron walked over to Goofy and hugged him too. He walked over to Donald, knelt down, and gave the duck a big hug as well. As he approached Alexander, the Interference said, "Aw, I guess I can't resist." Alex and Tron hugged as well.

Then Tron slowly began to back away. "I promise." After a moment, he added, "I hope you find Kairi." Sora noticed him getting further away. "Where are you going?" he asked suddenly. Tron waved slightly, then ran to the pit and dived in. Sora and the others gasped and ran to the edge of the pit. Tron disappeared into the light shining below. "Tron..." Sora muttered.

Suddenly, the whole mesa around them began to quake, and a bright light enveloped them all.

* * *

Yuffie ran into the computer room and met up with Aerith. "Things are settling down in town!" Yuffie exclaimed. "The only Heartless left anywhere are the local variety. And it looks like there are fewer than before." 

Aerith nodded. "Now if we can just get those four back in one piece..." She did a take as the device on the other side of the room began to shine, and the quartet appeared. "You're here!" Aerith cheered. "Welcome back!" Yuffie greeted them.

Sora nodded gravely. After a moment, he asked, "How's the town?" Yuffie was still ecstatic. "A-okay!" she replied vigorously. "Not a single trace of the MCP, either," Aerith added. "Everything's back to normal. We made it."

Yuffie walked over to Sora. "Hey, why the long face?" She shook a finger at him, making Sora flinch. "What happened?" she demanded.

"Tron just disappeared," Donald replied. Sora sighed. "And he promised we'd see him again..." Suddenly, alarms and sirens began to go off in the computer room, and everyone turned to the terminal. "What's happening!?" Aerith exclaimed.

The sirens stopped abruptly. "Greetings, friends," Tron's voice came from the computer. "System is up, and ready for User input."

"Tron!" the quartet yelled. "Stay in touch," Tron replied. Sora grinned and said, "Yeah!" Alex ran over to the computer. "Alright, Tron. There's something I've been meaning to take care of here."

"What is it?" Tron asked. Alex paused, then said, "Are there any templates for the Heartless in the DTD? Y'know, Devastators, Strafers, and Magnum Loaders for example?"

After a few moments, Tron replied, "There is. What about it?" Alex sternly replied. "They needed to be deleted now!" A few more moments. "Done. There are now no more Heartless templates in the dataspace."

Alex grinned and turned back to the rest of them. "Not only does in prevent the Heartless Manufactory from operating now, but it's also the equivalent of sealing a Dark Corridor in Space Paranoids."

Donald raced over to the computer. "Oh boy, oh boy!" He started typing randomly on the keyboard. "Hey, stop that!" Tron scolded him, chuckling a bit. "That tickles!"

"Wait, what?" Alex mumbled, caught off guard by this statement. He apparently hadn't remembered this.

"Tron is ticklish?" Goofy repeated to Sora. **_Oh, no..._** Roxas muttered. Sora got an evil grin, and suddenly poised his fingers menacingly. He walked over to the computer and started typing furiously. "How 'bout this?" he demanded. Goofy chuckled quietly to himself, and Alex slapped his forehead. "Please stop that!" Tron begged, laughing a bit harder. Sora and Donald laughed their heads off and resumed tickling Tron.

Aerith chuckled. Yuffie pointed at the quartet and remarked, "I think Tron's been hanging around those guys too much." Alex caught the remark, and retorted, "Around them, not me!" Alex heard Joumae laugh and say, **_Hey, you're as guilty as they are of being a little ridiculous._**

"W-wait, wait just a moment," Tron pleaded. "I want to show you something I dug up from the system archives. You can see the town back when it was first built." The computer's monitor began to shine, and the light filled up the whole room.

* * *

Cloud watched from the restoration site as pillars of light began to appear all over the town. Leon stood beside him and stared up at the light as well. "That's right..." he muttered. "I remember now." The sky began to sparkle as some shiny particles fell down to the town.

* * *

Cid and Merlin walked out of the house and looked up at the sky. Cid held out his hand as one of the crystal petals fell into his hand and floated there, shining brightly. "Just like the old days..." he remarked. 

Merlin stroked his beard. "Hmm... I'd be fascinated to ascertain as to when the town got such a dreadful name as Hollow Bastion!" They continued to watch as more pillars of light appeared, sprinkling more crystal petals over the town.

* * *

Sora, Donald, Goofy, Alexander, Yuffie, and Aerith walked out onto the rampart and watched the phenomenon. Even Alex had to admit that it was a beautiful sight to see, especially in person. It was almost serene. The whole world felt much lighter now, as if the darkness had less power here. 

"You know," Aerith said, turning toward Sora, "this town had another name once." Sora mumbled, "Huh?" Aerith looked up at the castle looming over them as the memory came back to their minds. "Radiant Garden."

Alex held out his hand and caught one of the crystal petals. Instantly, it was covered in a dark halo. Alex pulled out his Lockshield, and everyone else disappeared. A light flashed from the Lockshield, and the shining image of the Heartless emblem appeared beneath his feet. The strange wind began to blow against him while his surroundings were enveloped by light. He looked around at the starry expanse, which had become strangely familiar now.

The crystal petal shot out a dark beam up into the air, which formed the Dark Corridor above him. Alex looked into it, and saw the mass of Shadows inching toward the opening. Alexander twirled the Lockshield around and then finally pointed it at the keyhole. A halo surrounded his weapon for a moment, then it closed in and shot out a beam at the Dark Corridor. When it collided, a dark green wall formed itself and covered up the opening. Then the whole space lit up, and Alex found himself back in the rampart of Radiant Garden.

"So that's pretty much it, huh?" Sora confirmed, standing next to him as they watched the crystal shower. Alex shook his head. "Nuh-uh," he muttered. "There's still one thing to take care of."

This caught Sora off guard. "What is that?" Alex stared at his hands, remembering the Anti Form incident. "My darkness. There's too much of it. Though I can feel that I've gotten some light back, it's only a little bit. That last bit of light is always the hardest to snuff out." He stared at Sora, then out to the Great Maw in the distance. "So I've got to finish my business with the one who told me to keep that fact in mind."

* * *

**Disclaimer: I only own Alexander, Joumae, and the Lockshield. Every other element of this story belongs to their respective owners. Namely Square-Enix and Disney.**


	37. OneWinged Angel

Chapter 36  
One-Winged Angel

Sora was dumbstruck. "You don't mean...?" Alexander nodded solemnly. "If I'm going to overcome this darkness in my heart, I have to fight Sephiroth."

Aerith gasped at the name. "Sephiroth!?" she repeated quietly to herself. She stared at Alexander for a moment, then stated, "Sephiroth is incredibly powerful, Alexander. Only Cloud can really defeat him."

Alex glanced at her sharply. "I know that. I don't plan on defeating him... just fighting him. If I can at least even match Sephiroth, then that'll be enough."

Donald and Goofy walked over to him, having heard part of that conversation. "Do you know where Sephiroth is?" Goofy inquired. Alexander nodded again. "Yep. He's an optional boss in the game, and I beat him before. That is, in the game..."

Joumae cleared his throat in Alexander's mind. **_Right. What level was Sora in the game when you had beaten Sephiroth?_** he asked pointedly. Alex's shoulders drooped, realizing Joumae's point. "When I had beaten Sephiroth in the game, Sora had been level... 84. With the Ultima Weapon."

**_And what level do you think _we _are?_** Alex hung his head. "I'd say we're about level 40." Donald pretty much exploded with rage. "So you're going to fight the most difficult enemy in the universe at half the strength you should have!?" he screamed.

Alexander smirked. "Well, if you put it that way... Yes." Aerith became even more distressed. "Wait! If you know where Sephiroth is, why don't you just go tell Cloud? Sephiroth is Cloud's enemy anyway, and he's the only one who can..."

Alex cut her short. "I know. That thought crossed my mind as well. In fact, I had planned for that to be my next interference in this world. But after the whole Anti Form thing..." He paused, letting the words sink in. "...I realized that what Sephiroth had said had an effect on me. I had become so focused on the darkness that my light was reduced to that little speck he was talking about."

"I know it's suicidal, but... it's what my heart's telling me to do." Alex chuckled. "I've never followed my heart before, and this seems like a good time to start."

Sora nodded. "Well, you can't win just with your strength alone." Sora, Donald, and Goofy brought out their weapons. "We'll help you."

Alex shook his head. "Thanks, but I can't accept that offer. I have to do this by myself." Donald was about to complain, but Sora cut him off. "Well... you'll need a _little_ help..."

* * *

Alex started to run down the hill to the restoration site, and the trio and Aerith watched from the rampart. Aerith looked at Sora. "Do you think that will really work, Sora?" 

Sora smiled. "I'm trusting him. If his heart is commanding him to do this, then he's got to follow it." Donald grumbled, "Some Interference he turned out to be..."

Goofy shrugged. "Well, he's got quite a bit of help now. Maybe he can do this after all."

* * *

Alexander walked past the Great Maw, and ended up at the Dark Depths. He saw a figure at the edge of the cliff, looking down at the structures below. Judging from the long, silver hair and the dark wing protruding from its right shoulder, it was definitely Sephiroth. Alex took a deep breath, willed himself to calm down, and approached the so-called One-Winged Angel. 

Sephiroth didn't turn to face him. "What is Cloud doing?" he asked. Alexander shrugged. "Beats me."

Sephiroth grunted. "Hmph. By the way..." He quickly turned around, drawing his sword and making Alex jump back. "Why did you come here, Alexander?"

Alex summoned his Lockshield in his left hand. In his right hand... Sora's Keyblade appeared! "I think I don't have to tell you that," he replied coldly. Sephiroth stared at the two weapons for a moment. "Well... that's an interesting sword you're carrying," he remarked.

"It's the Keyblade!" Alex retorted. "I see," Sephiroth replied. "So that's a Keyblade. And you must be its chosen wielder." Alexander shook his head. "Wrong. The Keyblade Master lent it to me for this."

Sephiroth shook his head. "Alexander... what will fighting me accomplish? You of all people should know you cannot defeat me." Alex glared at him. "I'm doing this to clear my conscience."

"Your conscience?" Sephiroth repeated to himself in an intrigued tone. "Did your darkness get the better of you?" When Alexander didn't reply, Sephiroth smirked. "I'm not surprised. You used up all of your light to create these worlds. You sacrificed your light to find an escape from your own world. And when the darkness offered itself to you... you embraced it willingly."

Alexander cut him off. "Shut up! Yes, I did want to escape my own world. I wanted to be a part of this one. That's why my heart connected with it. But that was a foolish and selfish desire of mine, and it led to my corruption." He reinforced his fighting stance. "That's why I want to clear my conscience. I may not be able to get rid of my darkness, but fighting you will help balance it."

Sephiroth paused. "Still, it is interesting that the Keyblade would allow you to wield it, even with the darkness in your heart." Alex's body tensed. "So what if it did?" he asked hesitantly.

"I wonder if it won't change its mind..." Sephiroth proposed, getting into his own fighting stance, "once I defeat you. Show me your strength."

Alexander had beaten the Sephiroth of the game in the real world rather recently, so he had a pretty good idea of how this would work. Sephiroth always started with something Alex called a flash step flurry. Always. Alex just hoped he could block it in reality...

"That's enough," Sephiroth muttered. The space around them became dark for a second, and Sephiroth seemed to disappear. Alex suddenly detected many attacks headed for him. Using both the Keyblade and the Lockshield, he started a mad flurry of counters to make sure none of the attacks reached him. It had all taken half a second, but Sephiroth must have made at least ten slashes. Fortunately, Alex blocked them all.

Alex turned around quickly, seeing that Sephiroth's guard was lowered right after the attack. He charged forward and started attacking Sephiroth savagely, trying to make as long a combo as both weapons would allow. Once the finisher was executed, Sephiroth teleported.

Alexander turned around, seeing Sephiroth reappear at the edge of the cliff. The One-Winged Angel held his sword in a defensive stance, and slowly approached Alex, who ran toward him. Once Alex was within range, Sephiroth started to attack. Alexander was expecting this, so he jumped back and dodged the slashes, making sure to stay out of range. Once Sephiroth stopped attacking, Alex jumped forward and attacked Sephiroth with an aerial combo.

Alex turned once more and ran, expecting Sephiroth to teleport. Well, he did, but he appeared right in front of Alexander. Moving to fast for Alex to defend against, Sephiroth slashed him with an uppercut, sending him high into the air. Alex quickly made an aerial recovery just as Sephiroth appeared beside him to uppercut again. Alex blocked the sword, then made another aerial combo against Sephiroth.

Alex grinned as they landed on the ground again. The Keyblade and the Lockshield worked great together. His pride was short-lived, however, because Sephiroth quickly took advantage of Alexander's lowered guard to attack him. Alex was thrown back by the slashes, which had done phenomenal damage to him. "_Curaga_," Alex muttered when he recovered, using up all his magic to heal himself. He had to make sure to not get cocky for the rest of the fight.

Sephiroth appeared behind Alexander and slashed him into the air. Alex once again recovered just in time to counter against Sephiroth's aerial combo. When Alex's combo was done, Sephiroth muttered, "Know your place." He disappeared and reappeared again a distance away from Alexander. "Give in to the dark." Orbs of darkness surrounded Alex when he landed.

Alex tried to run away from the dark orbs, but Sephiroth appeared behind him and threw him up into the air. The dark orbs followed as Alexander defended himself against Sephiroth's air combo yet again. But this time, he had to keep his eye on the darkness, which was slowly approaching him. He was able to knock them away with his weapons.

Alex landed on the ground and knocked away the last dark orb. Sephiroth saw an opening and made sure to exploit it, slashing Alexander over and over again, doing massive damage. Alex quickly drank an Elixir, but the time wasted cost him when Sephiroth sent him up into the air another time, where Alex had to counter again.

They landed again, and Sephiroth disappeared. He reappeared on the other end of the arena and slowly rose up into the air. Alex's breath caught in his throat. Sephiroth was about to use Sin Harvest. Or, more specifically for this game, Sin Heartless Angel. The technique Alexander feared, but had vowed never to succumb to it when playing the game. This would be no exception. Half-panicked, Alex yelled, "_Duo Raid_!" and hurled both the Keyblade and the Lockshield at Sephiroth.

Sephiroth was in the middle of the incantation, so he couldn't dodge the attack. The weapons hit him, stopping the Sin Heartless Angel in its tracks. Sephiroth landed back on the ground, and Alex's weapons reappeared in his hands.

Sephiroth appeared a few feet away from Alexander, thrust his hand into the air, and muttered, "Perish now." Before Alex could do anything, huge pillars of fire shot out of the ground and burned him, throwing him far away from Sephiroth. Alex quickly got up, but was thrown up into the air by Sephiroth yet again. After that exchange of blows, they landed on the ground again, and the air around them darkened once more. "That's enough." Alex had to block another flash step flurry.

Alex finished blocking the flurry, turned around, and got another combo on Sephiroth. Sephiroth promptly disappeared and reappeared on the other side of the arena. Alex couldn't hear what he was muttering this time, but a red aura had collected around his body. This certainly wasn't good.

"Give in to the dark." Alex faced another set of dark orbs. But there seemed to be a lot more this time than usual. Before Alex knew it, Sephiroth was behind him again. Fortunately, Alex managed to dodge Sephiroth's attacks, which had become significantly quicker than before. Unfortunately, in the act of dodging he had neglected half of the dark orbs, which closed in on him and exploded.

Alex looked around, and saw Sephiroth rising into the air. He was too far gone; Alex couldn't counter the Sin Heartless Angel this time. He suddenly felt all his strength sucked out of him. He knew that if he were seen from outside the game, it would look like he had one point of health left. He reached for another Elixir, but Sephiroth was already preparing for another flash step flurry. Alex had no choice but to block it, and continue to attack Sephiroth with one hit point.

Sephiroth disappeared after his finishing move, and Alex quickly downed the much-needed Elixir. Just in time too, as Sephiroth closed in and started to attack, bringing his health back down. When Sephiroth disappeared this time, Alex was able to use Curaga and heal himself back up.

Sephiroth was up in the air on the other side of the arena. Alex thought he was about to use Sin Heartless Angel, but he was quickly proved wrong. Out of nowhere, small meteors began to shoot down at him, exploding on contact with the ground. Alex paled; he hadn't remembered this part. All he could do was run from the incoming projectiles.

After quite a while, the rain of meteors stopped, and Alex was unharmed for the most part. Sephiroth appeared next to him and summoned more dark orbs. "Accept the darkness." Within the same second, Sephiroth raised his hand and muttered, "Perish now," summoning the pillars of flame that tried to suck him in. It was all happening too fast for Alexander; he got hit quite a few times, and had to drink another Elixir.

Sephiroth teleported again, and used the flame pillars technique once more. This time, however, Alex was well out of range of the technique, so he wasn't hit by them too much. Sephiroth appeared once more on the other side of the arena, and was about to use Sin Heartless Angel. Alex had enough time now, and he used the Duo Raid again to stop the technique.

Sephiroth teleported once more, and the rain of meteors started again. Alex was ready for them this time, so he was able to dodge them completely. Sephiroth appeared next to Alexander and slashed him a great deal more times. Alex used Curaga, and jumped forward, trying to predict Sephiroth's next move. Sephiroth appeared next to Alex in the air, but Alex was able to block his initial attack and get one more combo on Sephiroth.

Sephiroth appeared next to the rock wall, and started the incantation for Sin Heartless Angel again. Alexander decided not to use the Duo Raid this time. He quickly ran over to Sephiroth, jumped onto the rock wall, jumped off toward Sephiroth, and brought both weapons down on him as hard as he could.

Sephiroth and Alexander landed back on the ground, but Sephiroth didn't make another move. "What intriguing power..." he muttered. He stepped back to the edge of the cliff again.

Alex stood up straight, and glared at Sephiroth. "How'd you like that!?" he yelled. Sephiroth made a mock effort of brushing something off his shoulder. "I'll admit you're very skilled... But apparently, Cloud is the only one who can eliminate me."

Alex shrugged, wincing at the pain. "Fine by me. I told you I already knew that." He grinned, though it was a little forced. "My darkness is a bit more balanced now, at least."

Sephiroth grunted, and turned away from him. "Tell Cloud to come here. Tell him Sephiroth is looking to settle things."

* * *

Alexander walked into to the Crystal Fissure. He was breathing heavily, and he walked at a considerable limp. "Well, I think this is far enough," he muttered to himself. Alex slowly sat down against one of the crystals. 

Then he screamed. He screamed as loud as he could for a good five or six seconds. He just needed to get it out of his system. All that excitement, all that tension, all the pain and healing he had gone through to get past that fight was expressed in that.

Alex quieted down and sat there for a while. He chuckled to himself. "It's really amazing..." he muttered. "I'm actually a match for Sephiroth. In reality." He sighed. "But it was hard. It took all of my strength just to _stand_ after that fight, much less _walk_ here. Curaga spell or not, I'm still fatigued from that battle."

**_So... now what do we do?_** Joumae asked, free to speak once more. Alex stood up slowly, thinking to himself. "Well, our main priority is to go find Cloud and give him the news. But first..." He trailed off, summoning the Keyblade in his hand. **_...we should find Sora and return his Keyblade,_** Joumae finished for him.

"You don't need to find me," a voice remarked from the other end of the fissure. Alex looked up and saw Sora, Donald, and Goofy standing there, looking at him. Alex smirked and walked over to them. As he handed the Keyblade back to Sora, he said, "What brought you guys here? I thought you were waiting at Merlin's."

Sora took the Keyblade, and promptly made it disappear in a flash of light. "Well, you were gone for a while," Donald explained. Goofy nodded. "And after talking to everyone else about Sephiroth, we got worried about you."

Sora nodded also, and stared at Alex for a moment. "So what happened?" Alexander paused, then grinned. "I beat him. Well, technically at least. Anyway, we gotta go find Cloud. It's time they finished their business."

* * *

Alex knew where Cloud was: in the middle of the Marketplace. The quartet approached Cloud. Sora waved and said, "Hi." 

Cloud looked at them, and nodded in acknowledgment. He glanced at Alexander for a second, and asked, "Have you seen Sephiroth?"

Alex chuckled a bit. If only Cloud knew... "Yeah, I've seen him. He's in the Dark Depths. He's looking to settle things." Cloud nodded. "I see... So I guess it's time we settled this." He started to walk out of the Marketplace, and all of them knew where he was headed. "Cloud..." Sora mumbled, a bit worried.

Alexander nudged Sora, and gestured toward Cloud. Sora stared at him, but finally got the hint. He nodded, and they all started walking to the Dark Depths as well.

* * *

The quartet seemed to had made it to the Dark Depths first; Cloud was nowhere to be seen, but Sephiroth was still there. Alex approached him, and Sephiroth turned to face him. "Did you give him my message?" Alex folded his arms and glared at him. "Maybe," he muttered. 

"Sorry to keep you, Sephiroth!" Cloud shouted, walking into the Dark Depths. Sephiroth also walked toward him. "Cloud... You'll never let go of the darkness..."

Cloud brandished his sword. "Shut up." Sephiroth also got into a fighting stance. "You'll never let go of your past..." Sephiroth continued. Alex rolled his eyes; Sephiroth just never gave up the darkness rant, no matter who was listening.

"Shut up!" Cloud repeated, charging at Sephiroth. Sephiroth jumped high into the air to dodge Cloud's attack. Cloud jumped up after him, and they began to exchange blows in the air. With each clash of their blades, some blue energy sparked between them. "Cloud!" Sora yelled up after them. "Get him!"

Sephiroth knocked Cloud toward the rock wall. Cloud landed, and jumped higher into the air, barely dodging Sephiroth's following charge. Sephiroth continued to follow. Cloud brought his sword down on his approaching enemy, and they exchanged a few more blows. Sephiroth managed to dodge one swing, and knock Cloud around until they were back on the ground again.

Sephiroth dropped down and tried to slash Cloud, who jumped back onto the rock wall. Cloud ran on the wall for a second, then leaped off toward Sephiroth. Their swords met once more, and they landed back on the ground. They turned around to face each other, then charged. They stopped in the middle, pushing on each other's blade. "Absurd," Sephiroth remarked. "Defeating me is meaningless. You know that more than anyone, Cloud."

Cloud's glare wavered for a moment. "No matter how many times I fall," Sephiroth continued, "your darkness keeps calling me back!"

"Wrong!" a girl's voice resonated from the entrance to the Dark Depths. Cloud didn't have to look to know who it was. "Tifa! Stay back!" he warned her.

"How can I?" Tifa asked him. "I wanna help you." Sephiroth and Cloud separated again, and stood in their stances. "You can't," Sephiroth scolded her. "He'll never let go of the darkness."

"He doesn't have to," Tifa retorted. "He just needs someone to surround him with light." Sephiroth pointed his sword at Tifa, who jumped back. "The darkness will be there, Sephiroth," Tifa continued, "but in a place you can't reach."

Sephiroth seemed a little amused. "Is that right? Let's see what this light of yours can do." With that, he stepped forward and brought his sword down on Tifa. Tifa dodged the attack and charged forward, trying to punch Sephiroth. The One-Winged Angel stepped out of the way of the punch.

Cloud shielded his eyes with his arm, as if he was being blinded by some kind of light. "No!" he yelled. Tifa tried to land a combo on Sephiroth, but Sephiroth managed to dodge all of the attacks and throw her back. Tifa dodged a few more swipes of Sephiroth's sword.

Cloud slowly tried to adjust to this phantom light. The quartet did a take. "Look out!" Sora yelled as Sephiroth made a sudden charge toward Cloud. Cloud jumped out of the way and stood in front of Tifa, brandishing his sword with newfound confidence.

"Cloud, you can have my light," Tifa assured him. Sephiroth was rather skeptical. "The light doesn't suit you." Cloud paused, thinking this over. "I just... don't know." A white light appeared around his body for a moment.

Sephiroth now seemed outraged. "Stop!" As Sephiroth closed in, Cloud drew his sword back, and a golden light surrounded his body. Sephiroth stopped his charge, and flew up into the air. Cloud jumped up after him. Right before they clashed, a bright light filled up the whole area, blinding them all.

When the light faded, the only one left around besides the quartet was Tifa. "Huh?" Sora mumbled. "Where'd they go?" Goofy asked. Everyone glanced at him. "Do ya think they made it back to their own world?" Goofy proposed. Sora shrugged. "They went somewhere else..."

Alex nodded. "Cloud went to fight a great battle – to defeat the darkness inside him." He chuckled. "Just like I did." Tifa approached him. "Gone again," she admitted with a sigh. Alex turned to face her. "What will you do now?"

Tifa thought about it. "Guess I'll keep looking," she supposed. Alex sighed. "Got any leads?" he asked rhetorically. Tifa smiled at him. "Don't worry... Light is easy to find." He walked over to Sora and placed a keychain in his hand. The Fenrir keychain. "I gotta go. Here. This is for helping me out."

Sora looked confused. "But wait... When did we help?" They mulled over that question for a few seconds. Donald made a surprised quack when he looked up again. Tifa was walking away.

Everyone turned to face Alexander. "Well, is that all of our business here?" Sora asked him. Alex nodded. "Yeah... At last, we've reached the beginning of the end."

* * *

**Disclaimer: I only own Alexander, Joumae, and the Lockshield. Every other element of this story belongs to their respective owners. Namely Square-Enix and Disney.**


	38. Battleship Bravery

Chapter 37  
Battleship Bravery

"Since when were we towing a gummi garage along with us?" Alex asked as they entered the fairly large facility that Chip and Dale were leading the quartet into.

"The whole time," Dale replied matter-of-factly. "We gotta have one along with us in case we need to make repairs." Alex nodded passively as he looked around. It wasn't as large as it looked from the outside. There were three main functions of the gummi garage. Storage for blueprints, ship construction, and the launch pad.

Chip guided them to the construction area, where their new gummi battleship had been finished. Alex leaned against the pane of the window as he looked down on it. "Not bad," Goofy admitted as they all admired it. It was a wide, flat ship, with plenty of Aero gummis sticking out the back and sides, and a lot of guns and lasers along the bottom. The cockpit was in the center.

"So... why do we need something like this again?" Donald asked. Alex rolled his eyes. "To reopen the gate to Twilight Town. The Nobody ships have closed it all off. So we need a battleship to destroy a good portion of them so we can pass through safely."

"Shall we prepare for launch?" Dale asked them. Alex nodded. The loud whir of machinery went up a notch as the system moved the gummi battleship to the launch pad. Alex turned to face Sora. "Well, you're the pilot..."

Sora thought about that for a moment. "How about you fly it to Twilight Town?" Alex was surprised by this. "You mean that?" Sora nodded and smiled at him. Alex grinned, and raced over to the launch pad.

Alex jumped onto the gummi ship, which was now ready for takeoff. The bubble on the cockpit opened for him when he approached, and closed again as he settled down in the pilot's seat. "Alright, so how do I control this thing?" he asked.

Chip's voice came on the radio. "_It's rather simple. We've already plotted a course for the gummi ship to follow. All you have to do is control the guns and fine-tune the directions._" Alex looked, and saw two joysticks. He found out that the one on the left controlled the ship's lateral movement, and the other controlled the direction and fire of the gunnery. Pretty simple, just like in the game.

Dale spoke through the speakers. "_There's one big ship at the front of their fleet. A Dreadnaught. If you can get past that, you can open the gate and we'll follow you to Twilight Town._" Alex nodded. "Alright, let's do this."

Alex was suddenly thrown forward as the platform below him began to rise, carrying his ship along with it. He fiddled with the controls in anticipation. He had always liked the gummi route parts in this game, and now he was about to live it for real. Then again, it was a bit nerve-racking, considering that he was going to go through Assault of the Dreadnaught. And while it seemed easy outside the game, he knew that he was risking his life in this case.

His gummi ship rose and settled in front of another gate. A sign above the gate flashed "Ready". Alex nodded, and stood up. He pointed at the gate in front of his ship. "Start!"

The two screens on either side of the gate suddenly showed both of the chipmunks saluting him. The gate in front of him opened, causing a massive chain of doors to open behind it. The gummi ship began to vibrate as it rose off the platform. Slowly, it inched toward the gate...

Then it blasted off, throwing Alexander into his seat. The gummi ship quickly shot out of the gate and into the bright space of the gummi route. Alex was finally granted control of the ship, so he used the short time to get used to the movement controls.

Suddenly, he saw a bright keyhole-shaped opening closing in on him. Alex scowled. "Bring it on!" The light engulfed his ship...

* * *

And he found himself right behind a huge, blocky white ship. Alex swerved to the right as he passed it. He looked ahead, and saw many more ships ahead. More than he had first assumed when playing the game. This was going to be difficult. 

The gummi ship was headed for the back of another large ship, so he flew under it. He dodged some more of the smaller ones, and barely skimmed over the hull of another cruiser.

Alex flew behind a fleet of small ships, which suddenly scattered. "_Alex! Watch out!_" Dale yelled at him. Alex suddenly lowered the ship, just as a large red beam of energy shot at where he and the small Nobody fighters had been one second earlier.

Speaking of the fighters, Alex saw them on the sides, turning around in two single-file lines to face him. Alex faced one line and opened up the cannons on them. The ships were decimated rather easily, and Alex picked some of the other line off with the lasers.

Alex dodged another large red beam as soon as the fighters were gone. The ship sped up, and was met by a number of the more familiar enemy ships that he recognized from the game, which immediately started firing at him. Alex's ship staggered as some of the bullets hit it. Now he had to mind the enemies as well as dodge the fleet. This was tougher than he thought.

Alex destroyed all of the enemy ships, and passed over the largest ship in the fleet. The Dreadnaught, Alex guessed. A large Nobody ship appeared in front of him, just as a green beam of energy shot up from a hole in the Dreadnaught. Alex swerved around the beam, and fired constantly at the ship in front of him. More beams were shot from the Dreadnaught, all of them in Alexander's path. Fortunately, he did a good job of dodging them.

He flew away from the Dreadnaught, and dodged a small fleet of cruisers and fighters. As soon as he came out of the fleet, he was flanked by more enemy ships, which he was able to take out with his lasers. Alex turned to face the Dreadnaught again, and saw a gate in the center of the large castle-like structure. Maybe he could get in through there. He sped toward it, but a fleet of ships was leaving the opening at the same time, and Alex was forced to dodge it.

Alex flew around some more, hiding behind small fleets and shooting at everything that shot him. And boy, were they numerous. Suddenly, he heard a beeping noise from inside his cockpit. The ship was running out of health.

Alex turned the guns and shot one of the cruisers as much as he could. In a few seconds, the cruiser exploded, and a few green polygons floated out of it. Alex flew toward them, and they merged with his ship. The beeping noise stopped.

He turned toward the Dreadnaught again. The gate was still open, so Alex gunned the throttle and flew inside. Ready to meet him was a bunch more enemy ships popping up out of nowhere, and many turret-type ships along the walls. Alex shot at as many as he could, though he really wanted to just run. Unfortunately, if he went too fast he ran the risk of running into the walls.

Alex went through a small corridor and ended up in another "room" of the ship, where more enemies shot at him. Alex couldn't help but silently thank the gummi engineers Chip and Dale. They had put plenty of guns on this thing. That was always a good thing.

The ship flew straight into another small corridor, but it was sealed by a small wall with a blue crystal in the center. Alex shot at that crystal for a second, and the wall slid open, allowing him to fly into another room. It was smaller than the others, but it was loaded to the brim with turrets. He couldn't aim at them all, so he just dodged them for the most part.

Alex flew into yet another corridor. "_Alex!_" Chip's voice blared at him on the radio. "_You gotta get out of there!_" Right on cue, a wall started to close in just ahead of him. Alex was able to make it past the wall, but he had to dodge it. More walls began to close, which Alex dodged for the most part. He bounced off a few edges in the process, but nothing too serious.

Alex pulled up as he left the corridor, and flew through a long room loaded with turrets. He ignored the turrets again and fired at the enemy ships that were appearing in front of him. They were the immediate threat. At the end of the room, Alex flew down into another corridor. This time, there were many walls that he had to shoot through to pass by. He barely made it through, considering how fast the ship was going at this point.

Alex flew into another long room. This one not only had turrets, but it had many pillars sticking into it from the walls. With all the bullets flying at him, it was hard to dodge the pillars. Alex ducked into a small corridor and entered the next room.

Suddenly, a red warning light flashed behind him, stating "Alert!" Alex twisted the gunning control, swiveling the cockpit and the guns to face directly behind him. Sure enough, there were enemy ships coming up behind the gummi ship. Alex shot at them the best he could, but he could do nothing to look where he was going. He had to rely on the autopilot. Alex saw the ships disappear as he ran through another long corridor. He accidentally bumped against one of the sides since he hadn't seen it coming.

The Alert light flashed again right behind him, and he faced forward again. The ship rose up and entered yet another long corridor. This one had a combination of the breakable walls and the ones that tried to close in on them. Alex had become so alert at this point that he managed to make it through unharmed.

Alex came out of the corridor only to enter another shorter one. He broke through some of the walls, and came into a big room, with a large sphere in the center of it. This was the core for the Dreadnaught's main energy cannon, he knew it. But he had never managed to destroy it before... What if he did this time? Alex swung the guns around as the ship's side faced the core.

Chip yelled at him again. "_Careful, Alex! That place is dangerous!_" A plethora of enemy ships appeared and started firing at him. "No flippin' duh!" Alex cursed as he fired madly at the core. He ignored the other ships (except for the ones that were right in front of him). The core needed to take most of the damage.

The flyby seemed to last forever, though it was only one time around the sphere. Right before his ship sped up to leave, the core began to ignite with fire, and started to explode. Alex flew right into the opening for the cannon and sped away from the ship. Alex turned to face the ship behind him, and saw bright blue beams piercing the ship one by one. After a few tense moments, the entire Dreadnaught exploded in a bright supernova.

Alex saw a light flashing behind him, so he faced the ship forward and flew right into the keyhole opening again. The gummi route had been opened. Alex settled down in the pilot's seat, breathing heavily. That had been intense. But he had won, and he grinned when this realization came to him. "Alright!" Alex shouted in excitement, standing up in the cockpit. He pointed forward at the path ahead. "Full speed to Twilight Town!"

* * *

**Disclaimer: I only own Alexander, Joumae, and the Lockshield. Every other element of this story belongs to their respective owners. Namely Square-Enix and Disney.**


	39. The 13th Struggle

Chapter 38  
The 13th Struggle

The quartet entered the world of Twilight Town at the train station. Alex, for one, was very glad to be back. "Good grief," he remarked, "it feels like its been forever since I've been here." He began to think to himself as they started walking out of the station. "Let's see... What happens on this visit...?"

Goofy spoke up, saying, "Hey! I think we're almost there!" This caught the others' attention, even Alex's. Goofy seemed surprised by their reactions. "Gawrsh, aren't we here because of that picture?" Donald and Sora glanced at each other. "Look! I'll show ya!" Goofy assured them, reaching into his pocket.

As Goofy pulled the said picture out, Joumae muttered, **_I was under the impression that we're here because there's no other business to attend to..._** Alex shook his head and refocused on Goofy.

He was referring to the photo of Roxas, Hayner, Pence, and Olette in front of the Old Mansion. The one that they had found in the Realm of Darkness after the 1000 Heartless battle. Sora and Donald looked at it for a moment. "Yeah! Goofy's right!" Donald exclaimed.

Goofy nodded. "C'mon, let's go find this mansion!" he ordered. Alex slammed his fist into his palm. "Of course! That's what happens this time! I had forgotten..." The trio glanced at him with confused looks. Alex, oblivious to their bewilderment, motioned for them to hurry along.

* * *

Alexander led the way out of the station. He suddenly stopped, causing the others to stop as well. "Oh no..." Alex mumbled. A few yards away was a light gray shape, and it was moving. Upon further inspection, they realized it was a Creeper Nobody. As soon as that realization struck them, more Nobodies of many types began to spawn there as well. 

The quartet brandished their weapons. "I forgot!" Alex admitted. "The Nobodies are in the streets this time!" He paused as Sora, Donald, and Goofy rushed at the swarming Nobodies. "Wait..." Alex thought aloud. "If there are enough Nobodies to appear in the streets, that means..." He groaned, rolled his eyes, and charged into the battle.

"We'd better get going to the mansion!" Alex informed them over the sounds of the battle. "It looks like the Dark Corridor's almost open!"

* * *

It had been quite a while since the quartet had fought some Nobodies (at least, more than one at a time), so this was a rather rude awakening for them. Nobodies were far more difficult to deal with than Heartless were. Heartless were weak as individuals, but their strength was their sheer group mass. Nobodies didn't appear in large groups often, but the individuals were harder to take down. "Get used to it, because we'll be fighting very few Heartless from here on out," Alexander mused on the way to the mansion. 

When they passed the woods and reached the clearing at the Old Mansion's gate, they saw Hayner, Pence, and Olette... laying on the ground, obviously unconscious. Alexander ran over to Hayner. "Hayner! Are you alright? What happened?"

Hayner slowly got up to his rump, groaning from the effort. "Alex... Some Dusks attacked us when we tried to get in the mansion. We were trying to find out why the Nobodies were attacking more freely now..."

He looked at the party, and saw that they were one member short. "Where's Kairi?" This struck the quartet visibly. Sora hung his head. "One of the Organization guys kidnapped her," he replied solemnly.

Hayner did a take, then stood up. "Then that makes our work here even more important. Kairi's our friend, too, ya know." Sora turned to face Hayner. "You're right... You know, I never thought of it like that before."

Hayner smirked, and Pence and Olette joined him. They all looked at the mansion. "Word is," Hayner informed them, "this mansion gets a lot of really strange visitors." Olette nodded. "We thought this place might be the gateway to some kind of alternate Twilight Town."

Alex laughed, drawing attention to himself. "So you guys figured it out. I'm impressed." Sora was confused. "What do you mean, alternate Twilight Town?"

Alexander chuckled some more. "Time for another explanation. Haven't done one of those in a while." He paused for emphasis on that last statement. "Anyway, the alternate Twilight Town is... well, it's a perfect copy of this town made into data. Ansem created it to hide Roxas from Organization XIII until Sora woke up here."

_**Hmm... I was wondering about that...**_ Roxas admitted. Alexander looked at the Twilight Town trio. "So... how exactly did you guys figure it out?"

Pence glanced at Goofy. "Hey, Goofy, do you think we could see that crystal of yours?" Goofy nodded, and pulled out the pouch, and then brought out the blue crystal. Olette indicated the orange pouch. "I made that pouch myself, and I still have it. So there shouldn't be two of them here."

Hayner hefted up the Four Crystal Trophy. "And this is the trophy Alexander won at the Struggle." On cue, Alex pulled out his own blue crystal, and Hayner, Pence, and Olette brought out their own. "It's the only one of its kind," Pence explained, meaning the trophy. "Same for the crystals – red, blue, yellow, green – only one of each color. But you've got your own!"

Alex grinned. "So you realized that it must've come from a copy of the Four Crystal Trophy in an alternate Twilight Town. Very nice deduction."

Hayner put the trophy down, and stared at Sora. "So... where'd you get it?" Sora folded his arms. "Um..." He paused. "Lemme talk to Roxas for a second."

As Sora and Roxas spoke to each other, Goofy explained, "The pouch is from the King. When he gave us munny for the train ride, he gave us the crystal too."

Pence nodded. "But then... where did the _King_ get it?" Sora turned back to face them. "Alright, I think I got it," Sora announced. "Supposedly, Riku had stolen the pouch full of munny that Roxas had. The blue crystal from the trophy he had won at the alternate Struggle was inside. How it got into the King's hands... well, I don't know."

Alex nodded. "That's pretty much how it worked." He suddenly stopped as a new realization struck him. Then he grinned widely and pointed at Sora. "Ha! You're now the one who had to do an explanation! We're even!"

Hayner took this all in. "See? There's gotta be another town out there like this one. That would explain how the King got that pouch and the crystal. Everything makes sense."

Sora, Donald, and Goofy exchanged confused glances. "It... does?" Sora asked hesitantly. Pence stated, "That other town must be where whatever's missing from here went!" Olette nodded. "Maybe Kairi's been taken to the same place. It sounds like Organization XIII was responsible for all the weird stuff around town."

Sora nodded. "I get it!" he exclaimed. Alex smirked. "Again, I have to say that it was a splendid deduction on the part of you guys." Hayner smirked back. "Nah, I'll bet you already knew that we were going to be here, didn't you?"

Alex didn't have time to retort, because they all heard a familiar sound behind them. Like a Nobody appearing. Everyone faced the Dusk that appeared. Slowly, more Dusks appeared next to it. Alex started looking around frantically. "C'mon, c'mon, c'mon... where is he...?" he muttered.

The first Dusk jumped high into the air, ready to initiate its attack. But King Mickey jumped out of the forest and defeated it in midair. Mickey landed and yelled, "Watch out!"

Alex summoned his Lockshield. **_As if we need you to tell us that!_** Joumae retorted. The Interference shook his head and charged at the Dusks. He slashed one that was right behind Mickey, obliterating it. "You watch out too, Your Majesty!" he warned him.

Pence and Olette hid behind the walls of the mansion's courtyard, but Hayner brought out his Struggle club. "Time to pay you guys back!" Hayner yelled. This surprised the trio. "You can fight them?" Donald asked incredulously. Hayner nodded.

So it was Sora, Donald, Goofy, Alexander, Mickey, and Hayner versus a swarm of Nobodies that was doing its best to increase its numbers. You had to feel sorry for the Nobodies. Then again, you didn't have to.

Hayner turned out to be a more experienced fighter than Alex first knew. Apparently, he had been training off Seifer and the occasional Nobody while Alex was gone. He wasn't strong enough to hold his own, which explained why he had been knocked out, but he was skilled enough to help out the quartet and Mickey. It was only a short time before the wave of Nobodies stopped.

Mickey immediately turned to face the quartet. "I got somethin' to tell ya. I found out where Ansem is – Ansem the Wise!" he corrected himself. "The real Ansem! He snuck into Organization XIII's stronghold."

Alex shrugged. "This isn't news to me." The trio glared at him. "You coulda told us sooner!" Donald retorted.

"And we've figured out where Kairi is!" Sora added, not paying attention to Alexander. "I'm pretty sure we're right." Alex shrugged again. "Well, you're on the right trail, at any rate..."

Mickey seemed confused. "But why'd you all come here?" Sora seemed hesitant. "Someone gave us a clue."

"Who?" Mickey asked. "Well, Your Majesty," Goofy explained, "Sora thinks it mighta been Riku." Sora nodded. "It's just a feeling I had."

Alex nodded as well. "Yeah, it was Riku who met us in the Realm of Darkness that one time..." This earned him glares from everyone else. "Alright! Alright! I've learned my lesson!" he protested. "Out with the information beforehand! I get it."

Hayner, Pence, and Olette met up with them. "Huh?" Hayner mumbled. "Who's Riku?" Sora was enthusiastic. "My best friend," he explained. Pence nodded solemnly. "That's **it**!"

Olette knelt down to Mickey's level. "Your Majesty? You got the pouch with the crystal from Riku, didn't you? And you promised not to tell, right?" Mickey rubbed the back of his head. "Gosh, guys..."

Donald stomped his foot on the ground. "That's enough!" Sora nodded. "Yeah! Let's go!" Alex nodded as well, and was about to lead the way when he felt something weird in his pocket. He looked down, and saw that his pocket was awfully dark.

Alex reached into his pocket and pulled out the blue crystal again. It was surrounded by a dark aura. As the crystal floated up into the air, Alexander grinned and pulled out the Lockshield.

Everyone else disappeared. A light flashed from the Lockshield, and the shining image of the Heartless emblem appeared beneath his feet. A strange wind began to blow against him while his surroundings were enveloped by light. He looked around at the starry expanse, which had become really familiar now. Yet, he knew this would be the last time he saw it, so he savored the moment.

The crystal shot out a dark beam up into the air, which formed the Dark Corridor above him. Alex looked into it, and saw the mass of Shadows inching toward the opening. Alexander twirled the Lockshield around, making a big show of it, and then finally pointed it at the keyhole. A halo surrounded his weapon for a moment, then it closed in and shot out a beam at the Dark Corridor. When it collided, a dark green wall formed itself and covered up the opening. Then the whole space lit up, and Alex found himself back in Twilight Town.

"What was that?" Hayner asked. Alexander sighed, and replied, "That was the Dark Corridor. It's how the Heartless and Nobodies get into the worlds. Now that I've sealed it, you won't have any trouble from the Nobodies for a while." Olette seemed excited by this news. "That's incredible!" Pence also seemed surprised. "Wow! I didn't know the Lockshield had that kind of power!"

Alex shrugged, and started walking into the mansion. "Now that this world has been taken care of, let's move on. We might have less time than I think." Sora looked up at the Old Mansion. "Kairi! Riku! We're on our way!"

* * *

Sora led the way into the mansion, closely followed by Mickey and the others. "So... what are we looking for, Alex?" Hayner asked him. 

Oddly enough, Mickey was the one who answered. "There should be a computer somewhere in this mansion. If we can find that, maybe we can find a way into Organization XIII's stronghold!"

Pence seemed surprised. "Oh, the computer room? Alright, let's go." As Hayner and Olette followed him up the stairs, Sora and the others gave Alexander a weird look. "Just what did you do during your stay here, Alex?" Sora asked hesitantly.

Alex grinned. "I made a lot of Interferences. Most of it was just giving them information, but... then again, information eventually becomes the most effective Interference, doesn't it?" With that, he ran after Hayner and the others, leaving Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Mickey confused. Well, Mickey wasn't quite so confused, so he just nodded.

* * *

Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Mickey walked into the computer room. Mickey was the first among the four to notice it. "There!" Sora ran over to it, where Pence was already beginning to fiddle with it. "We found it!" Sora exclaimed. 

Hayner, Olette, and Alexander watched over Pence's shoulder. The trio was surprised. "You can handle this thing?" Donald asked. Pence nodded. "Okay... Here we go... Ah!"

Hayner was quick to ask, "What's wrong?" Pence sighed. "I can't go any further without a password." All eyes turned to Alexander, who could only grin sheepishly. "It's, uh... it's 'sea-salt ice cream'..." His voice was lowered in embarrassment, but it was clear enough.

"Of course!" Mickey exclaimed. "Ansem the Wise loved ice cream!" Pence typed the password in, and some high-pitched beeping noises came from the computer. "It worked!" Pence announced.

Suddenly, the machine next to them powered up, creating a bright blue beam right above the circular platform. Alex knew that touching the beam would teleport them to the alternate Twilight Town. "This is it," he muttered. "This is the start of the path to the stronghold of Organization XIII." He hung his head. "And also the end of the game Kingdom Hearts II."

"So what is going to happen?" Olette wondered. Alex sighed. "Well, there are two things that could happen. One, we face a horrible demise at the hands of Organization XIII... Or two, we defeat the rest of their members, take down their castle, and beat the game. At this point, there's nothing further I can do to interfere."

"What'll happen once you beat the game?" Hayner queried. Alex shook his head. "I... don't know. I don't know if I'll even make it back here..."

Hayner shook his head. "You're not going to by thinking like that." He clenched his hand into a fist, and held up his arm in front of Alexander. "Promise you'll come back to Twilight Town after you beat the game," he ordered.

Alex was surprised by this. And, for a moment, he realized how lucky he was to have met these guys, who would be his friends and support him in such a situation as this. He grinned and put his forearm up against Hayner's. "It's a promise," Alex stated with confidence.

* * *

Alexander, Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Mickey touched the beam simultaneously. Instantly, they were engulfed by a bright light, and they teleported. When they reappeared, they seemed to be in the same room. Although Hayner, Pence, and Olette were nowhere to be seen, and the computer terminal was a complete wreck. 

"Are we back in the same place?" Sora asked, stepping off the circular platform and looking around the room. "Look!" Donald shouted, pointing at the wrecked computer. Sora nodded to himself. "This is the other Twilight Town." **_...My Twilight Town,_** Roxas finished for him.

Mickey looked around. "There's gotta be an entrance into the dark realm somewhere. Let's split up." Alex cleared his throat, cutting Mickey off. "Actually, it's just in the next room. We don't need to split up."

They followed Alex's lead into the next room. In the far corner, there was a dark green swirling vortex. "There..." Sora muttered. All of them approached it. Mickey nodded to himself. "This is it."

* * *

The quartet walked through the portal, and ended up in a huge space that was a mix of colors, with the Nobodies' emblem flowing all over the place. "What is this place?" Sora wondered aloud. Alex answered, "Betwixt and Between. The tentative connection between worlds that Nobodies use." 

Donald looked around the space. "Well, which way should we go?" Sora dashed forward. "Riku! Kairi!" he yelled to no avail. Alex winced. "Sora, don't be so loud..." But he was too late. Dusks began to surround the quartet. Alexander summoned his Lockshield, and looked around. "Darn! Where's Mickey when you actually _need_ him?" he groaned.

The quartet fought the Dusks for a good long while, but the waves just wouldn't stop coming. They were holding their own just fine, but they were wasting time by doing this. It didn't take Sora long to realize that they were stuck. No matter how many Dusks they defeated, another one took its place. "It's no use!"

"Don't stop moving, or the darkness will overtake you!" a voice called out. A familiar voice. Out of nowhere, Axel dropped down and slashed a couple Dusks with his chakrams. "Get goin'!" he ordered the quartet.

"Why?" Sora demanded. Axel couldn't help but roll his eyes. "Don't ask. Just do it!" A couple of Dusks slammed into Axel and knocked him down. Sora ran over to him and defeated both of the Dusks.

"You okay?" Sora asked, kneeling down to Axel. Axel slowly got up. "I tried to kidnap Kairi, but Alex got in the way. After that, Saïx caught her. I'm sure Alexander already told you that Saïx is a member of Organization XIII. He's got it memorized. Now go save her!"

A Dusk appeared right behind Sora and tried to ambush him. Sora quickly got up and slashed the Dusk into oblivion. Alex joined the two of them as Sora yelled, "Leave us alone!" More Dusks appeared, separating them from Donald and Goofy.

Axel turned out to be a rather effective fighter. Sure, he had been weakened, but his control over fire could do an impressive amount of damage on a wide spread of enemies. But that was the only advantage Axel offered at the moment. The Dusks were still steadily advancing. It wasn't long before the three of them found themselves faced with an alarming horde of Nobodies.

The three fighters regrouped. "I think I liked it better when they were on my side," Axel admitted. Alexander smirked. "Now you know how we feel." Sora grinned and glanced at Axel. "Feeling a little... regret?" Axel replied, "Nah... I can handle these punks. Watch this!"

Alexander knew what Axel was about to do, and he had already thought of a good Interference. He grabbed Axel's wrist and shouted, "Wait! You don't have to sacrifice yourself! There's a more _effective_ way to beat them all," he added with a grin.

Axel seemed surprised. "You sure? This many?" he asked, indicating the alarming amount of Dusks. "How?"

Alex rolled his eyes, and suddenly grabbed one of Axel's chakrams. "Just watch," Alex replied, placing the chakram and his Lockshield together and hefting them up. "_Duo Raid_!" he shouted, hurling both weapons at the Dusk army. The two spinning weapons began to slash through them, but Alex took it a step further. "_Fira_!" Alex yelled. A ring of fire surrounded the Lockshield, burning a wider range of Dusks. He glanced back at Axel, who got the hint.

Axel stretched forth his hand, and fire sprouted from his chakram. Added on to the Fira spell, it made a huge mass of flame billowing from the combination of the weapons. Axel handed Sora his other chakram, who did the same and threw his Keyblade along with the chakram at the Dusks. They used the same fire trick, and suddenly they had two huge discs of flame spinning around them, burning through the hundreds of Dusks. "_Firaga Trinity Raid_!" the three of them shouted. A bright flash surrounded them.

When the light faded, the Dusks were all gone. Not a single one of them in sight. "Woah!" Sora exclaimed. Alex jumped up and snatched his spinning Lockshield out of the air. "And **that** is how it's done!" Alexander shouted excitedly, standing in a victory pose.

Axel stared at Alexander. "Why did you stop me?" he asked. Alex dismissed the Lockshield and shrugged. "Well... it occurred to me that you didn't have to destroy yourself in vain. All we needed to do was a Limit. So... that's what I did."

Axel sighed and rolled his eyes. "I didn't ask **how** you stopped me... I asked **why** you stopped me." Alex chuckled nervously and averted his gaze. "Well, so many fangirls in the fan community were distressed that you died. So I decided to try saving you, just to see if I could make things different."

Axel hung his head. "So I was just an experiment..." Alex became worried. "Hey! It's not like that. I also didn't want to see you fade away. And I'm sure that Roxas wouldn't either."

Axel looked up at the word Roxas. "Why worry about that? He's not even here." Sora approached Axel. "Actually, he's right here with me," he pointed out, tapping his heart for emphasis. Axel glanced between the two of them. "Well, this is one heck of an Interference, Alexander," he admitted.

Alex smiled. "Turned out there was one more Interference I could make. From here on out, though, it's probably beyond my ability to change."

Axel snapped his fingers. "Oh yeah, that reminds me..." He held his hand out to the other end of Betwixt and Between, and a large dark portal appeared. "Kairi's in the castle dungeon. If we're going to save her, we need to go now."

Sora faced the portal as Donald and Goofy joined them. "This leads to..." he mumbled. Donald stomped his foot on the ground. "C'mon! Let's get going!" Sora nodded, and led the way into the portal. Alex stopped before he stepped through, and looked back at the portal to Twilight Town. "It's a promise..." he murmured before fully stepping into the portal to The World That Never Was.

* * *

**Disclaimer: I only own Alexander, Joumae, and the Lockshield. Every other element of this story belongs to their respective owners. Namely Square-Enix and Disney.**


	40. Sacred Moon

Chapter 39  
Sacred Moon

"So... Roxas has to pretty much talk through you?" Axel asked Sora as they walked into the Alley to Between. Sora nodded. "It's a little tedious, but, then again, Roxas hasn't really had many people to talk to."

_**Hey! Don't talk about me like I'm not here!**_ Roxas complained, making Sora wince. Axel chuckled. "Let me guess... He doesn't like being talked about in the third person?" Sora nodded solemnly.

Alex rolled his eyes. "You three can catch up later." He stepped out of the shade with Mickey, and looked up. "Take a look at this." Sora and the others ran out of the alley, and looked up into the sky. Just beyond the horizon of buildings, there was a gigantic heart-shaped moon. "This is really it, guys. The World That Never Was."

Axel seemed a little astonished. "Wow... I didn't think that Kingdom Hearts was so close to completion..." Donald quacked in surprise. "Wak! **That's** Kingdom Hearts!?"

Alexander nodded. Sora looked back at Axel. "You said Kairi's in the dungeon, right?" Axel nodded. Mickey stared at the path ahead with a determined look. "Then we better find a way to get to that castle!" Mickey suddenly sprinted forward, leaving the others behind. Alex shrugged, not particularly worried. Mickey wasn't going to get too far ahead yet.

* * *

The following street, Fragment Crossing, was simply littered with Shadows. Littered, as in no matter how many they defeated, more kept coming. Eventually, they had to run past the entire area itself. Soon, they finally came to the infamous Memory's Skyscraper. 

"This is where you were first supposed to meet Roxas in the game, Sora," Alex remarked as they passed the skyscraper. Axel raised an eyebrow. "When did he find out this time around?"

Alex grinned back at him. "We met Roxas shortly after you tried to kidnap Kairi at Twilight Town. Quite a bit of a time difference." He looked up at the skyscraper. "Hey, Roxas, how are you guys doing on the whole Final Form thing?"

_**Well, Joumae has a pretty good idea of how it might work, but I'm not sure how we're supposed to pull it off... I don't know, we have to fine-tune it some more,**_ Roxas trailed off, leaving Alex curious as to what the idea was.

"Well, it sounds like they're making progress," Sora reassured him. Alexander shrugged again, and walked on. "We need to make some progress too. Let's get a move on."

They came to the Brink of Despair. It was a huge cliff cutting off the dark city from the floating castle ahead of them. Mickey stood at the edge of the cliff, looking up at the castle. There was quite a gap between them and the Castle That Never Was. "Dead end?" Sora queried. "There's gotta be a path somewhere," Mickey muttered.

"Can't we use one of my dark portals to teleport there?" Axel proposed. Alexander shook his head. "Those are rather risky for those that have hearts. Besides, there'll be a path soon. Just wait."

Suddenly, a bright light shone from one of the castle's towers. Alex grinned as the Keyblade appeared in Sora's hands. It took a second for Sora to realize what to do. He pointed the Keyblade at the castle, and a bright beam shot out from the tip and flew toward the castle. Right below the beam, a shining pathway appeared, connecting the Brink of Despair to the area of the castle Alex knew as Nothing's Call.

"Kairi..." Sora mumbled, lowering his Keyblade. "We're almost there." Alexander's eyebrows shot up. "Wait a minute..." he murmured. "That worked because of the connection between Sora and Kairi's hearts..." He chuckled. "Maybe it was better that Kairi had been kidnapped."

* * *

The six fighters walked along the long path to the castle, finally arriving at Nothing's Call. Alex could've sworn that they had walked a solid mile, maybe more. Sora took the lead and looked up at the castle's insides. "Kairi!" he yelled. "Where are you?" 

Mickey quickly shushed him. "Shhh! Remember where we are! This is their stronghold!" Suddenly, Mickey started running ahead. "Wait! Your Majesty!" Donald yelled after him. Alex rolled his eyes, obviously used to Mickey running ahead. Suddenly, it occurred to him why Mickey was rushing ahead, even though he had warned them to be careful. Alexander also started running after Mickey.

"Alex!" Sora shouted, annoyed at the deserting members. Suddenly, they heard some weird sounds, and the trio and Axel got into fighting stances. "Be careful!" Axel warned them. "We've got company, and lots of it!"

* * *

Alexander fought alongside Mickey as they slowly made their way through the castle. They finally made it to the elevator, called Crooked Ascension. As soon as both of them were on it, it began to rise. Nobodies appeared out of nowhere and began to attack them. 

They were beginning to encounter the final type of Nobody. Sorcerers, the type that Xemnas himself was in charge of. Their specialty was manipulating several transparent cubes to attack their enemies. Unfortunately, as Alexander had found out the hard way, they were immune to all magic.

The Crooked Ascension came to a stop, and Mickey led the charge again. They came to the stairway called Twilight's View, and Alex yelled, "Wait! Hold up a sec!" Mickey rolled his eyes and came to a stop. "We don't have much time to waste, Alexander! We need to help Ansem the Wise!"

"I know that!" Alex retorted. "It's just... I want to meet him. But I won't be able to do that if I don't keep up with you!" He suddenly realized the stupidity of his argument, and quickly admitted, "Alright, I see your point. Let's hurry."

Mickey and Alexander continued on to the Hall of Empty Melodies. It was one rectangular arena suspended over a black pit by two paths to either door. Fortunately for Alex, his acrophobia had been mostly cured, so he was able to cope with the whole bottomless pit idea.

"Alexander... You've done well." Alex looked up, and saw Saïx standing on the balcony above them. Alex and Mickey came to a stop, and they glared up at Saïx. "Done well? For who?" Alexander retorted.

"For Organization XIII," the Nobody replied matter-of-factly. "But the fact remains that we have no further use for you or Sora. Just look there," he ordered, pointing up at the moon above them.

Alexander grunted. "Yeah, yeah, your synthetic Kingdom Hearts is almost finished thanks to our dirty work." He smirked. "Not when I'm through with you guys, it won't!"

"Do you think you can really stop us now?" Saïx asked skeptically. "When you yourself were one of the keys to our success?" Alex summoned his Lockshield, and pointed the blade at the Organization member. "Come down here, and I'll show you what I think I can do!"

Mickey seemed distressed. "Alex..." Alexander shook his head. "Don't worry. This'll actually help the others out in the long run. Besides, Saïx was the first Nobody who challenged me." He grinned. "I think it's fitting I'll be the one to take him down."

Saïx chuckled, and summoned a dark portal around himself. Another one appeared on their platform. When he appeared from it, his claymore was in his hand. "Keyblade Master... Lockshield Master... both of your fates shall be the same," Saïx stated, getting into a fighting stance. Alexander glared at him and stood in his own stance. Mickey summoned his gold Keyblade and stood alongside Alexander. A barrier appeared around the platform, sealing them into this duel.

Alexander knew that Saïx would show no mercy in this battle, unlike the little spar they'd had during the Struggle of Twilight Town. The Luna Diviner would go berserk without hesitation this time.

"Do you feel it? The moon's power...!" Saïx murmured. Alex braced himself as Saïx rose into the air. "Moon, shine down!" Saïx ordered. A bright flash occurred around the Nobody's body, and it became surrounded by a bright blue light. Saïx had gone berserk.

The Organization member slammed his claymore down, sending waves of energy toward Alex and Mickey, who were thrown back. Alex knew that there wasn't much hope of damaging Saïx yet, so he stayed back. The Nobody continued to slam his claymore around, creating more explosions of energy. It was a rather rapid series of attacks, which were hard to dodge. Mickey was far more nimble than Alexander was, so the mouse had an easier time of it.

Alex saw something sticking out of the ground where Saïx had once attacked. It looked like an exact copy of the claymore. "Your Majesty!" he yelled. "Keep him busy!" Mickey nodded, and approached Saïx. Alex, on the other hand, dismissed the Lockshield and grabbed the handle of the claymore, yanking it out of the ground. All of a sudden, he felt a rage take over his body. It seemed like the berserker aura had lingered around the copy of the weapon.

Alex ran over to Saïx, whose attention was entirely on Mickey. Using the rage as strength, Alexander spun around and knocked the Nobody up into the air with the claymore. He did this a couple more times, than began to spin around wildly, bashing Saïx many times over. Saïx was finally knocked back, and his berserker aura had left him.

The claymore in Alexander's hands disappeared, and he was forced to summon the Lockshield again. Mickey and Alexander charged at Saïx. The Nobody anticipated the charge and swung his claymore a few times, striking Alexander in a combo. Mickey, however, dodged the attacks and began to slash Saïx with his Keyblade. While the Luna Diviner was recovering from Mickey's combo, Alexander was able to charge again and strike him repeatedly.

Saïx suddenly charged forward with his claymore, throwing Alex and Mickey back. The Nobody looked up at the moon, and raised his arms up to it. He seemed to be... absorbing the moon's power. Then again, that was indeed where he got his power... "Oh crud," Alex muttered. Saïx was approaching his berserker mode again.

Alexander charged at Saïx, but it was already too late. Saïx floated up into the air again, and shouted, "Moon, shine down!" Alex jumped back and retreated as much as he could as the bright blue aura surrounded Saïx again. Saïx started to run toward them, slamming his claymore on the ground randomly and creating shockwaves in his wake. Alex tried to run, but some of the shockwaves hit him hard.

"Move aside!" Saïx screamed, slamming his claymore into Alexander and knocking him high into the air. Alex landed safely enough, but Saïx wasn't done. The Nobody jumped up into the air, and threw his claymore down to the ground with a roar, creating a huge shockwave that sent Alex and Mickey flying.

When he recovered, Alex saw that Saïx had left another phantom claymore where that last attack landed. "Mickey! I need your help again!" The King nodded quickly and charged at Saïx first, running to the side. Saïx followed him, being led away from the phantom claymore. Alexander dashed for it, and wielded the claymore in the place of his Lockshield. The rage flooded his mind once more, but he was expecting it this time, and was ready for it.

Alex charged at Saïx, claymore in hand. When he got close enough, Alex swiped at him vertically once, twice, three times, and spun around wildly again. He knocked the berserker aura out of the both of them, and Alex summoned his Lockshield once more. As Mickey and Alexander regrouped, Alex suddenly got an idea. "Mickey. I think we can do a Limit..."

Saïx recovered, and brandished his claymore. Alex and Mickey charged at the Nobody in unison. When they got close enough, Alex and Mickey both slashed at Saïx, crossing each other's paths and ending up behind him. They wasted no time, turning back around and slashing Saïx's back. For one more time, they rushed at Saïx's sides, both of them shouting, "_X Strike_!" and slashing across the Nobody in the exact way they had announced.

Saïx staggered backwards and glared at them for a moment. Then he suddenly let go of his claymore, letting it drop to the floor and disappear. Saïx looked up at the heart-shaped moon and reached for it pathetically. "Why... Kingdom Hearts... Where is my heart?" he groaned as he faded away into the nothingness.

Alexander sighed and dismissed the Lockshield as the barrier around them dissipated. "That'll make things easier for Sora and the others, I imagine." Mickey shook his head. "No time to celebrate this victory, Alexander. We gotta hurry and find Ansem!" Alex nodded, and rushed to the door on the other side of the Hall of Empty Melodies.

* * *

Mickey led the way up Naught's Skyway. Alex followed close behind, but barely. Mickey slashed through a Neoshadow and a couple of Dusks in one string of attacks over a long distance, which impressed Alex. 

Alexander jumped up the ledge to the next landing, allowing him to get ahead of Mickey. He ran up the ramp to the landing ahead. Right on cue, he saw a few Dusks huddling around a hunched red figure. Alex summoned his Lockshield and charged at the Dusks. With a few quick sweeps of the shield's sharp blade, all of the Nobodies dissipated into oblivion.

Mickey caught up with him and leaned down to the face of the man who had been attacked. Alex noticed that there was a rather tall machine laying on the ground next to the figure in the dark red cloak. As the man slowly tried to get up, he stumbled and used Mickey's shoulders for support.

The man stood up to his full height and slowly unwrapped the bandages surrounding his face. The inky black smoke faded away from his face and revealed the man beneath the darkness. "It's been too long, my friend," he remarked, looking at Mickey. He glanced at Alexander. "And... it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Alexander the Interference."

Alex shook his head. "The pleasure is all mine... Wise Ansem."

* * *

**Disclaimer: I only own Alexander, Joumae, and the Lockshield. Every other element of this story belongs to their respective owners. Namely Square-Enix and Disney.**


	41. Deep Drive

Chapter 40  
Deep Drive

The quartet of Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Axel ran into the Hall of Empty Melodies. Alexander and Mickey had left them far behind, and they were trying to catch up as fast as they could.

"Hey, Axel! Never thought I'd see ya again!" a voice called out from above. The four fighters stopped, and looked up at the voice. Axel groaned. "Xigbar. What do you want?"

Xigbar chuckled. "What do I want? The same thing all of us Nobodies want." He pointed up at Kingdom Hearts. "A heart from Xemnas's little floating project. But you know what? It's not quite finished yet." He grinned at them, and added, "I think it needs another helping of hearts from the Keyblade bearer!"

Xigbar snapped his fingers. All of a sudden, Heartless appeared all over the place. Massive bunches of Shadows appeared along the walls, and a plethora of Shadows and Armored Knights appeared on the platform with them.

The quartet stood side by side, and they brought out their weapons. "We gotta fight!" Donald ordered, brandishing his staff. Sora was hesitant. "But... Kingdom Hearts!" He had a point. Any more Heartless they defeated would benefit the Nobodies' plan.

"Sora!" a girl's voice called out from another balcony above them. Sora looked up and saw Kairi looking down on them. "Sora! It's really you!"

"Kairi!" Sora shouted, excited that he had finally found Kairi. Unfortunately, the Shadows saw an opening and all piled up on top of Sora. Kairi gasped at the sight, and glared at the Heartless. "You leave Sora alone!" She stepped back, and jumped off, landing on the second floor of the hall. Kairi ran forward to jump again, but she was immediately stopped by another group of Shadows. The Heartless proceeded to pile up on top of _her_ and pin her down.

Kairi groaned under the stress. "Sora..." A bright flash occurred, and all the Heartless on her dissipated. A figure resembling Xehanort's Heartless in an Organization robe helped her up. It was definitely Riku. Riku held out a flowery-looking keyblade with a star-shaped keychain on a braid. "Take it," he ordered.

Kairi hesitantly took the Keyblade, and brandished it. "I'll have to fight again." She chuckled and looked up at Riku. "You know Sora's completely hopeless without us! Come on, Riku!" With that, she charged at the Heartless, slashing a few with her Keyblade. Riku eventually summoned his Way to the Dawn Keyblade and attacked as well.

Xigbar watched all of this going on, but noticed something in the balcony across from him. He laughed at the sight. "Man, we got a lot of visitors today, don't we?" he joked to himself. He summoned a dark portal around himself and disappeared.

Maleficent and Pete admired the scene from the balcony. "Why, Pete..." Maleficent remarked, "this castle is perfect. Perhaps we should... acquire it."

Pete seemed doubtful. "Well, the setup is... kinda nice, I guess, but... what about all the Heartless? This in-between world – it's way too close to the darkness! They ain't gonna listen to us here!"

Maleficent looked away and grinned. "Once again, you underestimate me."

* * *

"Ansem the Wise," Mickey muttered. "Why didn't you come to me before things got so bad?" Ansem didn't seem to have anything to hide. "Xemnas, the Organization's Superior, is the Nobody of Xehanort, my foremost apprentice. The burden was mine to bear." 

"Sure, but Mickey could've at least helped," Alex pointed out. "The Nobodies are a mainly a fighting force, and you don't seem to have many skills in battle. So that can't be all?"

Ansem walked to the ledge of the walkway. "You already know the reasons, Alexander, but I won't deny there was more. I was... obsessed with thoughts of revenge. My apprentices stole everything precious to me – my research, and my pride."

Mickey shook his head. "I can't help you with revenge." Ansem nodded. "I know. Riku's told me a thousand times." Mickey looked around. "Where is he?"

"He must be with his friends by now," Ansem supposed. He turned to face Mickey. "Riku was a great help to me. I found him wandering the darkness, after you and he lost track of each other."

Mickey shrugged. "Gosh, we didn't lose each other exactly. Riku left... well, 'cause Xehanort's Heartless was still inside his heart, troubling him. And he sure must've been suffering."

Alexander nodded gravely. "Yeah, I can kinda sympathize. My darkness got the better of me once before." Mickey glanced at Alex, and continued, "I was wondering why Riku looked like that now, when he's still Riku at heart. But Alexander managed to explain that back at Radiant Garden."

Ansem turned to face the ledge again. "As you could probably have guessed, I am to blame. When I met Riku the first time, he still had the appearance of a boy. Probably because he had such a strong heart. I asked him to find a young man named Roxas from Organization XIII, and bring him to me. When I told him it would help Sora awaken from his slumber, Riku left without a word."

"I believe Alex already told you that Riku fought Roxas," Ansem went on. "And I can only surmise Riku lost that fight." Alex nodded. "Yeah, and that's when Riku must have made his resolution to fight in the realm of darkness. When he immersed himself in the darkness, he took on the appearance of Xehanort's Heartless."

"When Riku brought Roxas back to me," Ansem explained, "he was introducing himself... as Ansem. If that was what it took to awaken his friend, he was ready to live in darkness." Ansem paused. "Riku was the victim of my revenge. ...Oh, how my heart ached. I could only laugh to hide my shame."

Mickey mulled this over. "I guess it musta been after that when I saw Riku again. He said he wanted to help Sora... but he made me promise – Promise that Sora wouldn't ever find out about what happened to him while he was out in the darkness."

Alex coughed nervously. "Oops. Maybe I was actually breaking your promise by telling Sora all that." He shrugged. "Then again, he would've found out eventually anyway. And frankly, Sora doesn't really mind."

Ansem paused, and glanced at Mickey. "My friends, the time has come. I must make amends to these young people."

Alex nodded as Ansem walked by him. "So it's not about revenge anymore, but rather... redemption?" Ansem picked up the machine laying on the ground behind Alexander. "Precisely." The three of them walked further along the path.

* * *

"Get off!" Sora groaned, pushing the Shadows off of his back and standing up. He looked up at the second floor of the Hall of Empty Melodies, where Kairi and Riku were fighting. "What's going on!?" he shouted in surprise at the sight of Xehanort's Heartless. 

Sora heard a gun being cocked, and a shot ringing out. A pinkish dart of energy jabbed into the floor next to Sora. The Keyblade bearer gasped as a barrage of energy bullets went flying everywhere. But instead of attacking the four of them, they impaled the Heartless and defeated them.

"Great... he's brought out his guns now..." Axel moaned, readying his chakrams. "Have you been a good boy?" Xigbar's voice rang out. Sora glared up at the balcony. "Show yourself!"

Xigbar stepped out from a dark portal. "Oh, it sounds like you haven't," he muttered. "Man, I leave you guys for a couple of minutes, and you don't even get your work done..." He glared at them, and then shouted, "Sora! Roxas! You've really put Organization XIII in a pickle. I guess that must be why the Keyblade chose you. But **man**, did it pick a dud this time. You don't look like half the hero the others were." Sora summoned his Keyblade. "Are you done rambling?"

"Rambling?" Xigbar scoffed. "As if! All I'm trying to tell you, traitors, is that your time is up!" He summoned his shooters. Axel got into a fighting stance. "Here he comes!" Xigbar jumped off the balcony and landed on the platform. Standing up to his full height, he sneered and pointed one shooter at Sora.

* * *

Ansem, Mickey, and Alexander watched the battles from the balcony above them. Alex first noticed the trio and Axel fighting Xigbar. "Dang," he muttered. "They're really far behind." He watched as Donald was thrown back against the barrier around the platform. "And it looks like I can't get in now." 

Mickey looked down at Riku and Kairi fighting directly below them. They were surrounded by Shadows. The two of them were holding their own just fine, but the Heartless were turning out to be unusually nimble.

"Sora and Riku are together," Ansem informed them. "We have no part to play here." Mickey sighed and looked down at Riku. "Gee, I wonder if Riku will ever change back..."

Ansem also stared at Riku, who was trying to slash a couple of Shadows. "Riku chose that form so he could use the power of darkness. It won't be easy." Alexander coughed suddenly, drawing attention to himself unnecessarily. The three of them left the balcony and continued on.

* * *

The three of them finally stopped at Naught's Approach. "This spot should do," Ansem declared. He opened up the tripod at the bottom of the machine and set it down, aiming the device at Kingdom Hearts. 

"What's this gadget for?" Mickey asked. Ansem looked up at the heart-shaped moon. "It's a device to reclaim Kingdom Hearts and encode it as data." Mickey did a take. "Not sure I get it," Mickey replied.

"I do not claim to know the outcome of this venture, either," Ansem admitted. He glanced at Alexander. "But you, the Interference, should know. You've seen this happen several times before, have you not?"

Alexander nodded. "Yeah, I know what's going to happen." There was an awkward silence. "Oh, you want me to tell you. Well, for one thing, it's not going to do what you intend. Hearts cannot be transformed into data."

Ansem sighed. "I should've known. The residents of my copy of Twilight Town didn't act in the way I had expected, even though they were perfect copies of real hearts. Hearts are unpredictable." He paused. "So what exactly is going to happen?"

Alex also sighed. "Well, it's going to self-destruct after a while. The explosion will completely wreck that synthetic Kingdom Hearts, and send most of the excess hearts flying all over the place. So it'll get one thing done."

"Anything else?" Ansem asked pointedly. Alex averted his gaze, knowing what Ansem was intending. "The explosion... well, considering that it's an explosion caused by the power of hearts, anything could happen. But if Riku's nearby... he'll be changed back to his original form."

Ansem nodded, and powered up the machine. A bright green beam shot at Kingdom Hearts, and connected. Alex sighed again, and added, "But... if you don't get out of the way, Ansem... you'll be nowhere to be seen after the explosion. I don't know what will happen to you."

Ansem chuckled. "You already knew that I was going to do that...? Even so, I'm going to stay anyway." He gave Alexander a steady, sharp look. "If you've managed to make it this far through this game, you must have already realized that hearts are powerful things. Powerful enough to command our conscience, and convince us to take actions that defy all logic and reason."

Alex couldn't help but laugh. "Yes, I've already experienced that myself. You see, there's one optional boss in this game. Sephiroth. He's insanely powerful and ruthless, and it usually takes hours of training in the game to be an even match for him. But I faced him anyway because my heart was commanding me to do it." He chuckled. "As you can see, I've survived the encounter, so I managed to win." A silence fell over the area as they watched the machine work.

* * *

A long while went by. All of the sudden, the beam coming from the machine began to spark and shudder, and the machine itself began vibrating. Mickey panicked. "Ansem?" 

Ansem laughed. "I'm a fool. I spent years studying the workings of the heart. Yet it seems I still haven't learned a thing!"

"What d'ya mean?" Mickey asked. "The process of encoding hearts in incalculable," Ansem explained. "Alexander was right. A heart is so much more than any system. I saw it when Roxas and Kairi crossed paths. But I was too stubborn to accept it."

Ansem sighed. "It's always the same. I try to wrap my mind around things my heart already knows, only to fail. While I was trying to bring Sora back, I had so many plans in store. But once Sora was an acting force, they fell apart. All my research amounted to nothing, compared with that one boy's heart."

Alexander shook his head. "No, it wasn't all for nothing. I've seen your Reports, and I've made so many discoveries and theories from those documents alone. Your life hasn't been in vain at all, Ansem." Ansem sighed. "I appreciate your support, Alexander, but it doesn't hide the fact that I've failed. I'm proud that my Reports have helped you in your research, but they've done nothing for me or anyone else in this universe."

The machine began to spark. "Ansem! The machine!" Mickey warned him. Ansem shook his head. "All the more proof that hearts cannot be contained by data. Run, my friends! It's going to self-destruct, and anything could happen."

"But..." Mickey protested, trailing off. "Your Majesty!" Sora shouted, running up the ramp with Donald, Goofy, Kairi, Riku, and Axel. Alex grinned; this meant that Xigbar and Luxord had been defeated.

Ansem turned to them. "Sora, the rest is up to you... And Roxas – I doubt you can hear me, but... I am sorry." Sora shook his head. "Roxas can hear you, Ansem! And he knows you mean it."

Alex heard nothing from Roxas, but, then again, he hadn't really been listening. "Ansem!" Alex called out, worried about him. Ansem scolded him. "My heart is telling me what I must do, Alexander. Please allow me to do what it says!"

"No!" Mickey shouted, stepping forward. Riku grabbed his arm and pulled him back. "Riku!" Mickey protested. Riku shook his head. "His heart's decided. No one can change that. Not even the Interference."

Suddenly, they heard a dark portal appear as Xemnas himself appeared behind Ansem. "I was wondering who would dare interfere with my Kingdom Hearts. And look – here you all are. Even the Interference himself. How convenient for me."

He paused, and turned to Ansem. "Ansem the Wise... You look pathetic." Ansem sighed. "Have your laugh. I deserve as much for failing to see you for the fool you are."

Xemnas didn't seem affected. "Students do take after their teachers. Only a fool would be your apprentice. After all, none of this would have happened without you. **You** are the source of all Heartless."

He let this sink in, then went on. "It was your research that inspired me to go further than you ever dared." Ansem's voice took on an aggressive edge. "I admit... my disregard brought chaos to more worlds than one. But what were **you** seeking? You erased me from the world, only to take my name and continue research better left forgotten... Is this the answer you've been looking for?"

Xemnas nodded. "All that and more. I'm carrying on what you yourself began, and I'm creating and brand new world, one heart at a time. I thought you'd praise me, but all you ever do is hold me back." He paused. "I understand, though. Unlike me, you have a heart. And you're powerless to control it. Consumed, by the jealousy you feel toward the student who surpassed you."

Ansem shook his head. "Xehanort. Foolish apprentice of a foolish man. You have surpassed nothing – only proved how little we both know."

The machine's shaking and sparking got steadily worse. "We may profess to know the heart, but its essence is beyond our reach. We're both ignorant – as oblivious as when we began. I'm afraid that any world you try to create... Any world of yours... would be an empire of ignorance. That is why you and your creation are destined to fall!"

Ansem huddled over the machine, ready to do what he must. "We've said enough! Riku! You know what to do! King Mickey, my friend, forgive me! Alexander... I wish we could've met under more peaceful circumstances." The machine began to shine. "Farewell!"

Alex saw Sora running forward to stop Ansem, but Riku holding him back and shielding him. A huge explosion of light occurred around Ansem and the machine. Light slowly built up around them and eventually blinded them as it passed.

* * *

Alexander slowly got up off the ground. He looked around, and saw that the others were just beginning to stir as well. Sora shouted, "Riku?" and ran over to Riku's prone form. 

Riku's hair had suddenly taken a spiky turn, and he was wearing a black bandana over his eyes. But Riku's normal appearance had returned overall. "Riku!" Sora shouted again when he saw the changes. "Riku!" Kairi shouted excitedly. Goofy and Donald did a take.

Mickey shrugged. "Ansem did say 'anything could happen'..." Everyone looked, and saw that Ansem had disappeared, along with the machine. Sora glanced at Riku. "Riku, are you gonna take that off?"

"Oh..." Riku mumbled, and slowly pulled off the black bandana. He blinked a bit as his eyes adjusted to the light. "What was that?" Sora asked him. Mickey walked over to them and said, "His eyes couldn't lie."

While this was going on, Alex heard a groan behind him. Alexander looked and saw Axel leaning on the wall with one hand, with the other placed on his chest. "What's wrong?" Alex asked.

Axel shook his head. "Just this weird feeling in my chest..." As soon as he said that, his eyes widened, and he placed two fingers on the base of his neck. After a moment, he mumbled, "There's a pulse..."

Alexander was astonished for a moment, then he smiled. "You're completely human, Axel. You have a heart now." Axel mulled this over for a second, then said, "Really? But... how?"

Alex looked back at the spot Ansem had been. "Maybe your heart had belonged to a Heartless we had defeated on our journey. That heart would've ended up in that synthetic Kingdom Hearts. When that 'heartshower' occurred, your heart must've found its way back to your body and soul, and it merged."

Axel scratched the back of his head, but shrugged and remarked, "That's really weird, but I guess it's the only explanation we have." He flexed his hands, and his chakrams appeared in a burst of flame. "It seems I can still fight, at least."

Alex and Axel turned back to the conversation between Sora and Riku. "And just who were you trying to fool? Huh? Huhhh?" Sora demanded. "Myself," Riku replied coldly. Sora was shocked. "Riku... C'mon, man! Why did you try to do so much on your own?"

Sora ran back and joined the others. "You've got friends... like us!" Riku stared at them for a moment. Goofy chuckled and rubbed his nose. Donald folded his arms and smirked. Mickey, Kairi, and Sora smiled and nodded. Alexander shrugged and grinned at Riku. Axel shrugged.

Riku walked over to Sora. "Have you forgotten?" he demanded. "I'll tell you why." Riku paused, then added with a grin, "'Cause I'm not a total sap like you." Sora leaned in and muttered, "Say that again!" Sora challenged Riku.

They heard a weird noise to the side, and looked up at Kingdom Hearts. There was a huge hole where the beam had connected to the moon, and some hearts were floating toward it. "Uhhh-oh!" Donald moaned, having a feeling of impending danger.

Everyone ran to the ledge and looked down. There were hundreds of Shadows on the landing below. "Crud," Alex muttered. "Those were dark hearts that were released in the 'heartshower.' Now that they're free again, they could become Heartless once more. And since we're the only ones in the castle that have hearts..." He trailed off, knowing that the rest was obvious. Axel sighed, knowing that he wasn't safe from the Heartless anymore.

"What should we do, Riku?" Sora asked. "We must defeat Xemnas," Riku replied. "He's the Organization's last survivor, besides Axel and Roxas." Sora nodded. "Right!"

Riku grabbed his Organization cloak and threw it off, revealing his fighting outfit underneath. "C'mon!" he ordered. Everyone followed him into Ruin and Creation's Passage.

* * *

The party of eight (Sora, Donald, Goofy, Alexander, Kairi, Riku, Mickey, and Axel) walked into the huge room ahead. They were on a single platform, and there were many platforms scattered throughout the atrium, hanging in the air. "How are we supposed to move on?" Kairi asked, a bit panicked. 

Axel chuckled. "That's the secret to this room. Look there," he said, pointing to one edge of the platform that had a blue bar running along it. Axel stepped onto that edge, and stepped off into the space beyond. A path appeared beneath his feet, made of shining floating polygons. Reassured by this, the party moved on.

As the Nobodies attacked them, Alex finally got to see Riku's fighting style in person. Riku was very nimble, and yet very strong when it came to swordplay. And he still had control of some of his dark powers, like Dark Aura and Dark Shield. But considering that there were eight fighters in the group, no group of Nobodies lasted very long against their combined might.

Very soon, they came to the next passage, and Sora and Riku led the charge ahead. Kairi turned back and gasped. "Sora! Riku!" The two boys turned around and saw what was the matter. There were Shadows pouring in from the windows of the atrium, and many more coming up the path a ways behind them. "There's gonna be no end to this," Riku moaned, seeing the horde of Heartless slowly making their way forward.

"Together we can stop 'em!" Sora assured them. Riku chuckled. Suddenly, two dark auras appeared in front of the group, and Maleficent and Pete appeared. "Be gone from here!" Maleficent ordered. "Leave these creatures to us!"

Pete was surprised. "But there's no way we can take 'em all!" he protested. Maleficent gestured toward the party. "I will be sending them after Xemnas. Or, perhaps, you would rather fight them yourself?"

Pete seemed to consider that. "Frankly, my dear, I'd rather... **run**!" he replied. "Off with you then!" Maleficent ordered, fed up with his cowardice. Pete turned to leave hesitantly, and ended up facing Mickey. "Well, if it ain't the boat-boy King." Mickey nodded. "Time to weigh anchor, Captain Pete!"

Pete seemed a little annoyed by that. "What, like 'abandon ship'? I don't think so!"

"Sora! 'Your Majesty'!" Maleficent shouted back to them. "Do not forget – when I've destroyed them all, this castle shall be mine!" Alexander glared at her. "And then you'll try to exact your revenge on us? ...Including me?"

"Of course," the witch responded coldly. "You represent all of those who played the role of Sora defeating me during the first video game! Therefore, you're as guilty as those three meddlers there." Alex was a little shocked by this, but he reinforced his glare and nodded. "Well, then... I'll be waiting for the day."

Pete glanced at Mickey again. "Now lookie here," he explained. "Opportunities like this don't come along every day, ya know." Pete ran back to Maleficent's side and faced the Heartless. "Bring 'em on!" he shouted. The two of them charged at the Heartless.

The party watched them leave. "We gotta hurry," Mickey warned the others. "But..." Sora tried to protest. "They're doing what their hearts command," Mickey scolded him. "We can't interfere." With that, Mickey started walking toward the passage onward. Sora slowly began to walk that way too, followed by the others.

* * *

The party walked up the stairs to the Altar of Naught. Xemnas was at the end of it, looking up at the wrecked moon. "Ohh... my Kingdom Hearts... ruined," he moaned. "Now I'll have to start all over again." He knew that the others were nearby. "Warriors of the Keyblade! Warrior of the Lockshield!" Xemnas turned to face the party, and stated, "Go forth, and bring me more hearts!" 

"No!" Sora, Riku, Mickey, Kairi, and Alexander replied, summoning their respective weapons simultaneously and pointing them at Xemnas. "Denizens of light," Xemnas hailed them, "answer this: Why do you hate the darkness?"

Mickey lowered his Keyblade. "Aw, we don't hate it. It's just kinda... scary. But the world's made of light **and** darkness. You can't have one without the other, 'cause darkness is half of everything." He paused. "Sorta makes you wonder why we are scared of the dark."

"It's because of who's lurking inside it," Riku answered for him, still keeping the Way to the Dawn pointed at the Nobody. Xemnas didn't seem too bothered by this. Then again, Xemnas didn't have any emotions anyway. Hardly even a personality. So it was hard to tell what he thought of things. "Then allow me another question. You accept darkness, yet choose to live in the light. So why is it that you loath us who teeter on the edge of nothing? We who were turned away by both light and dark – never given a choice?"

"Simple," Alex replied. "It's the fact that you keep messing up the worlds in this universe! It's not prejudice, it's self-defense!" Xemnas nodded slowly. "That may be... However, what other choice might we have had?"

"Just give it a rest," Sora scolded him. "You're Nobodies! You don't even exist! You're not sad about anything!"

Xemnas forced a chuckle. "Very good. You don't miss a thing. I cannot feel... sorrow... No matter what misery befalls the worlds. No matter what you think, what you feel, or how you exist. And yet, you have a Nobody among you, who shares the same disability," he added, indicating Axel. "So why keep him, but shun me?"

"That's because he helped us!" Alex retorted. "That, and he got his heart back in the explosion of Ansem's machine!" He laughed. "And all because I Interfered with his fate."

Xemnas scowled. "How troublesome. Alexander the Interference... You don't belong in this world any more than I do. It's unjust, how an outsider to these worlds has more right to exist than I..." With that, Xemnas raised his hands into the air, and a bright light began to gather around them. Alex shielded his eyes and the light blinded him.

* * *

Alex slowly opened his eyes. They were no longer on the Altar of Naught. Around their large circle of ground was a wavering image of the dark city. In the middle of the arena was Memory's Skyscraper. 

Alex looked around, and saw that he and Xemnas were the only ones there. "Guys?!" he shouted, surprised by this development. Normally, it was supposed to be Sora whom Xemnas picked for this final duel, but it seems that Alex had managed to Interfere with that too.

Alexander dashed forward and tried to slash at Xemnas with the Lockshield, but Xemnas covered himself in a sphere of darkness. That technique rendered him invulnerable, and he would use it many times to dodge and move around the arena, Alex knew that much.

Xemnas appeared out of the darkness and struck Alexander with a bolt of electricity. Crystals began to float around his body, which were connected to him by beams of electricity. Every second, they would send a shock through his body that drained him of a little health.

Xemnas warped to the skyscraper, and he jumped up to the top. "Come closer, Alexander..." he muttered. Alex quickly obliged and ran to the base of the structure. Using all the will he had, he tensed his body and shattered the crystals that were shocking him. Alexander looked up and saw Xemnas on the top of the skyscraper.

Alex jumped onto a lamp nearby, jumped up and swung on a spike jutting out of the metal awning, then leaped up and started running on the side of the building. He had become fast enough to do this, and the physics of The World That Never Was were kind of messed up anyway.

Xemnas dove off the building, with two long laser swords sparking from his hands. Alex jumped forward, and the two of them passed over the large screen on the building's side.

During the second that they were out of range, Alexander remembered the reaction command Clash that was usually used in this situation. But he had heard once before that this reaction command could _progress_ into more advanced and far more damaging reactions. Actually, that had been one of the reasons why Alexander had started a new game in the first place, to test that theory for himself.

So Alex decided to take Clash a bit further. His Lockshield and Xemnas's swords collided, and they hung still in the air for a moment. The first thing that came to Alex's mind was _Break Through!_ Alexander swung around Xemnas so that he was facing the Nobody's back. Alex bashed his shield into Xemnas's back a few times, sending him to the ground.

Alex landed on the ground, and quickly made a chain attack against the still-stunned Nobody. After the finishing blow, Xemnas was quick to use the dark sphere technique to warp to the other end of the arena. There, Xemnas simply stood and waited.

Alexander charged at Xemnas. When he got within a few feet of reaching him, Xemnas shouted, "Guard!" and formed a wall of electricity in front of himself. Alexander hadn't seen this coming, and he was shocked and thrown back by the wall. Xemnas quickly made the barrier dissipate, and he used his laser swords to cut Alex a few times.

Xemnas warped a short distance away, and quickly charged at Alexander with his laser swords, starting a spinning chain attack. Alex shouted, "_Reflega_!" and formed a barrier around himself, which Xemnas's attacks glanced off of. But the Nobody's attack wasn't stopped with just one Reflega. Alex had to cast more spells to keep his defense up. He knew from experience that Reflect spells could be chained up to six times, so he hoped that Xemnas's barrage would stop after those six spells.

And it did. The combo of sword strikes stopped just before the sixth barrier faded. The Reflega spell shot blasts of light in all directions, striking Xemnas with a sizable fraction of the damage he had tried to inflict.

Xemnas warped again. When he appeared, he struck Alexander with another beam of electricity, creating the health-sucking ring of crystals around him. Xemnas jumped up to the top of Memory's Skyscraper again, and Alex ran over to the base of it.

Alexander used his will to break the crystals again, and looked up at Xemnas watching from the building above him. Alex jumped up to the building yet again, and started running up it. Xemnas dove off with his laser swords, and they met in front of the big screen.

Their weapons clashed again, but now the word that flashed through Alex's mind was _Finish!_ He swung over Xemnas and slammed the face of his Lockshield into the Nobody's back, sending him hurtling toward the ground. Alex jumped off the screen after Xemnas, and met his velocity. They exchanged a few blows with their weapons.

Then Alex parried Xemnas's swords and shouted, "You're finished!" With that, he swung the Lockshield against Xemnas, slamming the Nobody into the side of the building. Alexander landed on the ground and stepped back as Xemnas fell in a heap. In the space of a few seconds, Xemnas's body was covered in a dark portal, and the Nobody disappeared.

"Alex! Where are you?" Alex heard Sora's voice echo into the arena. Suddenly, the whole area around them began to light up, and Alex shielded his eyes again.

* * *

"Alexander, answer me!" Axel ordered, looking around with the others for where Alexander and Xemnas had disappeared to. A portal appeared a few feet off the ground behind them, and Alex fell through, landing flat on the ground. 

Everyone ran over to him as he slowly got up. "You're okay!" Mickey exclaimed. Alexander looked around, a little happy that they had been so worried. "Where's Xemnas?" he demanded. He knew that the Nobody hadn't been defeated yet.

Donald looked from side to side, and quacked in surprise when he saw Xemnas in the hole of Kingdom Hearts. "Hear me, Kingdom Hearts!" Xemnas intoned. "It seems we must begin anew. Ah, but know this: I will give to you as many hearts as it takes. Mark my words!"

Alexander's jaw was a little slackened at the sight of all those hearts floating around Xemnas. But, at the same time, he was sobered by the creepy nature of Xemnas's little monologue. Xemnas droned on. "You can no more be complete without me than I without you. Heed me, Kingdom Hearts! Lend me your power, so that we may be complete! The power to erase the fools that hinder us."

Mickey realized what Xemnas was planning. "Xemnas! No!"

"Hearts quivering with hatred..." Xemnas hailed the hearts, relishing their power. "Xemnas!" Sora called out after him. "Don't!" Xemnas went on. "Hearts burning with rage..." Donald stomped his foot on the ground. "You'll never win!"

"Hearts scarred by envy..." Xemnas muttered. Alex shook his head. "Heartless... Nobody... he was a fool either way."

Xemnas noticed the party watching this behind him, and his next words were aimed at them. "That fool Ansem said the heart's true nature was beyond his understanding. But it's not beyond mine! Hearts are the source of all power!" Kingdom Hearts began to shine brightly, and the party blocked the light from their eyes until the light faded.

When they looked again, Xemnas had disappeared from the chasm in the middle of Kingdom Hearts. "Xemnas!" Sora yelled. "You can't hide from us!" Mickey turned to face the others. "We're not gonna let him get away now!"

Kairi noticed something. "Look at that!" she shouted, pointing at the space a few yards off the edge of the platform. A purple light collected around the space and formed a huge doorway. "What's goin' on?" Goofy asked.

"Kingdom Hearts..." Mickey mumbled to himself. "Let's go," Axel ordered. "Xemnas must be inside." Mickey nodded, still a bit in awe. "The worlds gave us this doorway. They want us to be the guardians of their destiny!"

Alexander grunted and nodded, still deep in thought. Riku remarked, "Once we go through, there's no turning back. It's victory... or oblivion." Riku glanced at Alex. "So, Alexander... are you ready?"

* * *

**Disclaimer: I only own Alexander, Joumae, and the Lockshield. Every other element of this story belongs to their respective owners. Namely Square-Enix and Disney.**


	42. A Fight to the Death

Chapter 41  
A Fight to the Death

It didn't take long for Alex to realize that "Are you ready?" was a rhetorical question. In the game, you had all the time in the world to train and mull the question over. However, this was reality. They had very little time to waste, and therefore not much time to find out if he was ready.

Besides, what could they possibly do if they weren't ready? The Dark Corridors in all of the other worlds were sealed; they couldn't run back to train on Heartless or Nobodies in those places. That left The World That Never Was. Sure, in the game you could run back and train, but in reality they had Maleficent and Pete holding off a massive horde of Heartless in the previous room. The truth was that the only direction they could go in was _forward_, toward the final battle.

Alex, Sora, Riku, Kairi, and Mickey put their weapons together in a circle. A bright light shone from the tips of the Keyblades and the center of the Lockshield, and they raised them to the air. Five bright beams shot up into the air, and the doorway to the final battle slowly swung open.

"Get ready, Xemnas!" Sora muttered. With a swing of his Keyblade, he added, "It all ends here!"

* * *

The party walked along the shining path and finally appeared on the other side of the door. On their sides were the buildings of the Dark City set in a row. The buildings were now nothing more than a battlefield... and a weapon. Sora gasped as he looked up at the living white dragon-castle in the distance, which Xemnas stood atop of. 

"So..." Xemnas remarked, "it seems your hearts have led you to obliteration. Perhaps it doesn't pay to be too loyal to one's heart. I will have to be sure and remember that."

From above, one of the blocks of a skyscraper started falling toward them. The party ran, and were thrown off their feet as the building impacted the ground and caused a small quake.

Alexander looked up, and saw that Mickey, Kairi, and Axel had been thrown beyond the door. And the door was closing. "No!" Riku shouted as they all ran to the door. But it was too late; the door had completely closed. Sora, Donald, Goofy, Alex, and Riku were stuck in the final battle, and the others were stuck out of it.

But Sora's determination didn't falter. "We can take him on our own!" he shouted, summoning his Keyblade. Riku and Alex summoned their Keyblade and Lockshield in turn, and Donald and Goofy brandished their own weapons.

Alexander knew that this first approach wasn't going to be easy. "Sora, you take the lead!" he ordered. Sora nodded and started running forward. A few seconds later, more buildings began to rise out of the ground, the line slowly approaching Sora.

Sora twirled his Keyblade around, and before the others knew it, he was beyond the buildings with his weapon held out to his side. A few white lines appeared through the buildings, revealing the slices he'd made on the structures. The buildings crumbled down to nothing, and the rest of the party soon caught up with Sora. They continued on.

They came to a platform at the end of the pathway. As soon as all of the quintet was on the platform, Xemnas's dragon-castle rose, and then slammed down onto the platform. The quintet was thrown off their feet as the platform suddenly rose up to the castle's level.

More buildings floated up with them, and some of them tried to drop down on them. Sora jumped up and sliced through one of them. Once Sora had gotten a good footing on that block, he leaped toward another one and cut up that one. Sora repeated the process, and jumped from building to building until he finally leaped toward one of the castle's main cannons.

Alexander got ready to do the same, but he hesitated and looked back at Riku, Donald, and Goofy. The Sky Scraper reaction that Sora used was not beyond Alex's abilities, but he didn't know how they were going to get the others there. Riku looked over at him and gestured toward the castle. "You go ahead. We'll catch up!"

Alex nodded, and looked up at one of the falling buildings. He leaped up and swung his Lockshield's blade through it, cutting it in half. He landed on one half and jumped toward another block, repeating the process. When he got within range, Alex jumped for the cannon opposite to the one Sora jumped toward.

* * *

Alexander landed on a wire mesh platform right in front of the cannon. Right on cue, Nobody creatures much like the one of the kinds he'd seen in Assault of the Dreadnaught started to appear. Alex remembered that these particular star-shaped types would close in and explode if you didn't destroy them soon. But Alex also remembered that the point of the exercise was not to destroy _them_, but destroy the cannon. 

Alex jumped up to one Nobody and whacked it with the face of the Lockshield. It went flying into the cannon's core immediately, exploding on contact. Alexander went around whacking as many Nobodies as he could in the same manner. He didn't have much time, considering that the cannon was charging its attack.

The platform began to shake, and Alex knew that the cannon was ready to fire. He only had a few seconds to escape the blast. He leaped up onto the ledge of the platform and onto a bar jutting out from the edge of the cannon itself. Right before the cannon fired, he leaped forward, flying toward the other cannon which was firing as well. Sora waved at Alexander as they passed each other in midair, and Alex could only shrug.

Alex grabbed onto another hanging bar, and flipped down to the platform in front of the right cannon. Instantly, more Nobodies began to appear, and Alex resumed the process of sending them into the cannon's core. He could see even now that Sora had done quite a bit of damage to the core already. All he had to do now was finish it off.

A few more seconds later, and the both cannons began to shake uncontrollably. They were going to explode, and Sora and Alex's only hope was to escape to the energy core of the tower.

Alex jumped up to the bar hanging from the edge of the cannon, and looked up at the tower. He crouched down for a second, then leaped up to the tower, meeting Sora in the air along the way. The cannons exploded behind them, propelling them the rest of the way. Alex grimaced; they were done with one part of the battle.

* * *

Sora and Alex fell to the tower's floor. A white cylindrical structure with a red Nobody emblem was right in front of them. The structure twitched up and down from time to time. Alex knew it was the castle's energy core. But to their surprise, Donald, Goofy, and Riku were already there, working on destroying it like they were supposed to. 

Riku grinned at the new arrivals. "What took you two so long?" he teased. Alex rolled his eyes and didn't retort, instead preferring to get the work done. But right before Alex could get to the energy core, a bright barrier appeared in front of it, and Nobodies spawned right behind them.

"I guess it's a good thing we arrived after all!" Alex groaned as he charged back at the Nobodies. Sora and the others started to attack the Nobodies as well. Nobodies of all kinds appeared, from Slashers to Sorcerers.

Alex realized that they must have gotten close to destroying the core, because he saw a large claw-like structure right outside of the large hole they had come through. The claw stabbed into the ground of the tower, knocking away some of the quintet. "I think Xemnas knows we're in here!" Sora remarked sarcastically after recovering from the attack.

Finally, all the Nobodies were defeated. Alexander wasted no time in starting his assault on the core. He and the others savagely attacked the energy core as much as they could, trying to do as much damage in as little time as possible, just in case another barrier appeared.

They didn't need to worry. The core suddenly shone with a bright light, and stopped moving. Goofy sighed and lowered his shield. "Is that it?" he asked wearily. Alex nodded. "Well, at least for this part. Let's proceed." He placed his hand on the core, and a bright light shone all around them.

* * *

The quintet looked around. They had appeared in a large atrium in what they assumed was the dragon-castle's head. In front of them was a humongous, fancy throne, and a heavily armored figure sat there, wielding a large spear. It was Xemnas, without a doubt. The fighters got into their stances. 

"Cursed fools!" Xemnas moaned, and a few lances floated out from behind the throne. They looked like Xaldin's lances... Alex didn't have much time to ponder that, because the lances shot down and struck them, knocking a few of the fighters away, including himself. Alex recovered and shouted, "Alright Joumae! Final Form would be really useful right about now!"

As the others closed in and started attacking Xemnas, Alex stayed back and listened to Joumae. **_Alright, here's my idea,_** Joumae began to explain, a little irritably. **_It starts out just like Driving into Master Form. However, you end up adding _us_ into the equation, and you add on our powers to yours. Basically, Sora's also Drives with Roxas as well as two other people. In our case, you'd Drive with me as well._**

"What about in Space Paranoids?" Alex demanded, a little worried as he watched the others thrown back by a sweep of Xemnas's spear. **_We're still technically near you guys when you're in Space Paranoids,_** Joumae replied. **_We just can't communicate with you._** Roxas cut in by saying, **_You guys just start the Master Form Drive! Leave the rest to us!_** Alex was a little hesitant, but he realized they had not much choice.

"Sora!" Alex yelled. "There's not enough of us for us both to use Drives. You try to use Final Form!" Sora nodded, and stepped back away from Xemnas. He glanced at Donald and Goofy, and shouted, "Light!" Light shot out from Sora's body, and Donald and Goofy disappeared.

When the light faded, Sora's clothes were definitely a bright white. He was floating a foot off the ground, and he had two Keyblades floating behind his back. Sora charged forward, and his Keyblades began slashing at Xemnas with remarkable speed. The weapons nearly seemed to have wills of their own; Sora just needed to move his hands slightly to control them.

Alexander and Riku could only watch as Sora continued his barrage. Alex couldn't really tell from a third person perspective, but it looked like Final Form was rather similar to Anti Form, only completely opposite. That is, some of the techniques and properties of the Forms were similar. But Final Form was superior in that respect, all the same. Alex grinned, knowing that with Final Form, he wouldn't have to worry about accidentally running into Anti Form and risk having his darkness take control again.

Sora made the finishing move of his chain attack, diving down and stabbing both Keyblades into Xemnas, straight through his armor. The Nobody moaned as a bright light shone from his body, signaling the end of the fight. It eventually blinded them all as it slowly built its intensity.

* * *

The party appeared back at the Altar of Naught. Axel, Mickey, and Kairi stood beside them as they all faced Xemnas. Sora had reverted to his original form. Xemnas fell to one knee, clutching his chest. "I need... more rage..." he groaned. "I need more... hearts..." 

Sora lowered his Keyblade. "Xemnas. There's more to a heart than just anger or hate. It's full of all kinds of feelings." He stepped forward. "Don't you remember?"

"Sora..." Alex cut in, staring at Xemnas. "He's the Nobody of the apprentice Xehanort, who studied the darkness of the heart. He didn't know anything but the dark emotions by the time he had become a Heartless. So why should his Nobody know any more?"

Xemnas couldn't help but grin a little. "He's right... Unfortunately... I don't." The darkness slowly gathered around Xemnas's body, until he had completely faded away. Sora turned toward the others and began to laugh. Everyone started to chuckle.

"Gosh," Mickey remarked, "you all did great." Alex didn't say anything; he knew better than to Interfere now. "I just wish I coulda been there to see his demise," Axel admitted.

While the others talked amongst themselves, Sora noticed Riku walking toward the ledge. Alex followed Sora over to Riku, curious as to how this would play out. "You're coming back with us, right?" Sora asked him hesitantly.

"I had given in to the darkness," Riku muttered. "Riku!" Sora moaned, a little annoyed that Riku was still keeping this up. Riku turned to face him, demanding, "How'm I gonna face everyone?"

"Like this!" Sora replied, placing his hands on his cheeks and pushing on them, forming a rather silly face. Riku was caught off guard; he started laughing. Alex glanced at Sora's face, and also started to chuckle. Sora smiled and nodded.

Suddenly, the tower lurched to the side, throwing them all off balance. Mickey ran over to the three of them. "Hurry!" was all he had to say. The situation was clear: the castle was going to fall soon, so they had to escape while they still had time.

"I'll open a path!" Riku assured them, stretching his hand forth. But nothing happened. Riku gasped and glanced at his hand, rather shocked. Mickey shook his head. "You don't belong in the dark realm anymore, Riku."

"And if Riku has lost his dark powers," Axel added, "then there's little doubt that I have too." He also tried to summon a dark portal, but nothing happened. "Yep."

Donald turned to the King. "How do we get out of here, Your Majesty?" Mickey didn't know the answer to that just yet.

Sora, Riku, Kairi, and Alex glanced at the other side of the Altar of Naught. A transparent image of Naminé had appeared. Naminé turned around and put her hand forth. A dark portal appeared in front of her.

Mickey and Donald ran toward the portal, accidentally running through Naminé's image and making it disappear. "Who did this?" Donald asked. "Welp," Mickey admitted, "I'm not sure. But we'd better hurry and get through."

All of a sudden, the dog Pluto ran around Mickey and Donald, and then through the portal, barking all the way. "Wait for me!" Goofy shouted, running past the two of them and disappearing into the dark portal. Mickey followed suit. Donald turned to the remaining four and yelled, "C'mon!" before disappearing into the portal himself.

The image of Naminé appeared again, and Sora, Kairi, and Alexander walked over to her. "Thank you, Naminé," Kairi said to her. "Sure," Naminé replied. She looked at Sora. "See? We meet again, just like we promised." Sora was a little confused. "Huh?"

"You said we'd meet again, but when we did," Roxas started to say, his own image stepping out of Sora, startling the Keyblade Master, "we might not recognize each other."

Naminé smiled. "I did, didn't I?" Roxas nodded. "But I knew you." Naminé shrugged, and mumbled, "Mmm... it's strange."

"I think I understand," Roxas remarked. "I see myself the way you remember me. And you see yourself the way I remember you."

"I always thought Nobodies were doomed to fade back into darkness..." Naminé muttered. Roxas grinned. "Yeah, but you and I didn't. We got to meet our original selves." Naminé smiled back. "So, we can be together again!"

"Yeah, just as long as Sora and Kairi are together, right?" Joumae asked, his image stepping out of Alexander. This really scared Alex out of his wits. "How romantic," Joumae continued, pretending not to notice Alex's wild reaction. Roxas rolled his eyes, standing next to Naminé. "Boy, Joumae, you sure know how to ruin a moment, don't you?"

Joumae grinned. "Well, I'm the dark counterpart of the least reverent one among us. I don't think it's surprising." Alex groaned loudly, making the others chuckle.

Kairi glanced at Sora. "We'll be together every day. Right, Sora?" Sora, still a little shocked by the peculiarity of the situation, barely stuttered, "Uh... yeah!" Joumae chuckled. "Lucky guy. If only Alex had ever considered a romantic relationship with one of this game's characters while he was an Interference..."

"Hey!" Alex shouted, cutting him off. "Don't even start. That's out of the question!" He was perfectly serious about this, but it came across to the others as rather amusing, and they laughed again.

Naminé and Kairi approached each other, and they took each other's hand. As Naminé disappeared, a golden light surrounded her, which collected around Kairi as they were made complete again.

"Look sharp!" Roxas yelled, startling Sora, who had been immensely surprised by the sight of Naminé disappearing into Kairi. Roxas and Sora closed their eyes, and Roxas disappeared into a bright blue light, which collected around Sora.

Alex sighed and got a good look at Joumae. Now that they weren't meeting on a battlefield, he could see just how Joumae compared to him. Indeed, it was like looking into a mirror as far as the face and head was concerned. But Joumae was wearing a dark green armor that was similar to the Lockshield in design. And one thing that Alex hadn't noticed before was that Joumae's eyes were a startling green. Other than that, they looked exactly the same.

"Are we gonna do this _today_?" Joumae muttered angrily. Alex faltered, and grinned sheepishly. They shook hands, and Joumae disappeared in a bright green light. Alexander felt himself up as the light faded from his own body, a little confused as to what happened. "Don't worry," Riku assured them as he approached. "You're all still you."

Kairi walked over to the portal and looked back. "Hey, let's go home!" Sora glanced at the others. "Riku... Alexander... C'mon." Riku nodded. "Yeah." Alex didn't say anything.

As Kairi stepped into the portal fully, Sora and Riku noticed that the portal was beginning to close. They started running, leaving Alex a little ways behind. Kairi also noticed this and reached back for them. "Sora! Riku!" she shouted as the darkness completely enveloped her.

The portal disappeared. Riku, Sora, and Alexander were still stuck at the Altar of Naught. As soon as the surprise passed, Riku quickly turned around and grabbed Alexander, holding him up by the collar. "You! You knew this was going to happen, didn't you!?" he demanded, shaking Alex. "Why didn't you tell us!?"

Alexander pushed Riku off of him, and pointed off into the distance beyond the ledge. "Because the fight's far from over!" he shouted back. "Xemnas isn't defeated yet!"

* * *

**Disclaimer: I only own Alexander, Joumae, and the Lockshield. Every other element of this story belongs to their respective owners. Namely Square-Enix and Disney.**


	43. Darkness of the Unknown

Chapter 42  
Darkness of the Unknown

Sora and Riku ran to the ledge facing the direction Alex was pointing in. The whole space around them had become an infinite space, with only a floor and a ceiling with plenty of room between.

In the distance, there were two pillars sticking out of the floor and ceiling. Held between the two pillars, there was a light green sphere containing a lighter silver sphere. The two orbs began to shine, and the outer sphere seemed to shatter, revealing the dragon part of the castle they had faced in the last battle.

The dragon flew by the tower, knocking into it as it passed. The tower of the castle began to tilt, and the three fighters began to slide. Then, all of a sudden, Riku started running down the sloped platform. "Riku!" Sora shouted, rather surprised. But Alexander knew what he was heading for. There was a fighter-type craft right next to the falling tower. Riku leaped off the tower and landed in the fighter, quickly getting used to controlling the small craft.

Riku steered the craft under the falling tower, but just out of range of its fall. "Sora! Alex!" he shouted. Sora took the initiative and leaped, landing on the platform sticking out of the fighter. Alex took a hesitant jump and landed between the two boys, barely managing to find a secure place to stand on the fighter. "Now you see why I didn't interfere!" Alexander shouted as Riku started flying the craft after Xemnas's dragon. "There was no more room for any more of us to fight! I'm barely able to stay with you even now! If any more of us had stayed, they would have most likely perished!"

There was no more conversation, because they were coming up behind the castle-dragon. Sora summoned his Keyblade and got prepared to help out the best he could. Alexander knew in advance what they had to do, but it was perfectly obvious to the others too. They had to disable the dragon's movement. The only way to do that was destroy the wing structures, the engine-like structures near the back of the castle-dragon, as well as the tail.

They came up behind the tail first. All of a sudden, four Nobody ships appeared in front of them and fired a few blasts of purple energy at them. Riku lifted up his Keyblade, and a barrier appeared around the fighter, absorbing the energy bolts. Riku pressed a button somewhere around the fighter's controls (Alex couldn't quite see in his situation), and lasers shot from the fighter, hitting the ships and sending them crashing into the tail.

The next many seconds or so went on like that, with Riku putting up a shield to absorb shots and using the ship's lasers to retaliate and damage the tail of the castle-dragon. Soon, a bright light appeared under the ship. Before anyone could ask, Alex shouted, "We absorbed enough shots with the barriers that we've charged up the Megalaser!" He pointed at the tail. "Fire!" And Riku did so, with little hesitation. Two thick, wide arcs of energy raced out of the fighter's gunnery and spread outward, damaging as much as it could.

The tail structure suddenly exploded, leaving only the stem of the dragon's tail behind. The dragon staggered a bit, but continued along its course with little further hesitation. It was a start, but they were far from done. Their fighter slowly approached one of the cylindrical engine structures, but they couldn't fire yet. The dragon suddenly convulsed, and several flat triangular crystalline shapes appeared before them.

"Evasive action!" Alex yelled. Their ship lurched, and the strange shapes shot beams of energy at them, just at the place they had been in two seconds earlier. More of the strange designs appeared, firing more beams at them. Riku did his best to dodge them all, though Alex and Sora got a little singed at times.

More Nobody ships appeared, much like the ones Sora and Alex had faced when they were sabotaging the castle's cannons in the first stage of this fight. They were rather close to the fighter already, and Riku had steered them closer. Sora knew what to do. He started swinging his Keyblade at them, whacking them toward the engine structure they were near. The Nobodies fell easily; they weren't very sturdy. While Sora was doing this, Riku was busy firing lasers.

Alexander's attention was completely focused on making sure he didn't fall of the craft. It was only built for two people (who had already taken their proper positions), so it was very hard to keep a sturdy grip on the constantly moving ship. He was a little disappointed that he couldn't help right now, but he was sure that this was better than a long fall to his doom.

Riku fired another Megalaser, taking out a huge chunk of both engines' health. A few more enemies knocked into it by Sora, and one of the engine's exploded. Riku fired a couple of lasers at the other, which also exploded promptly. Alexander couldn't help but grin. At least in reality they were allowed to improvise.

The dragon seemed rather irked by this new development, but it kept on flying, though its efforts were a bit more labored. It could still fly for quite a while, but it was weakened. The fighter passed by the dragon's hollow head, where Alexander barely saw the armored Xemnas sitting on his fancy throne inside.

The fighter flew in front of the dragon. After a few moments of tension, the dragon convulsed again, and more of the crystal shapes appeared, firing beams at them. Riku was a bit more experienced now, and had an easier time of steering the ship out of the way each time a laser fired.

The lasers stopped firing, but the dragon flew up and over them, and a bunch of white missles dropped down and headed for them. Riku hadn't been expecting this, so they were hit by the first few, but he managed to work his way around the others.

They faced the dragon again. Slowly, the fighter approached the dragon's right wing (left, in the perspective of the trio looking back at it). When they got close enough to attack, more Nobody ships appeared to counter them. By now, they were very much used to the routine, and they were taking the wing's health down quickly. Riku had also learned to alternate between firing lasers and absorbing attacks with the shield, so they were also good on the defensive. It wasn't long before the wing exploded, and the fighter flew toward the other wing.

The dragon was in serious trouble now. One of its wings was gone, and only the other wing was keeping it up. It would fall soon, with or without the trio's help. But the trio in question wanted it defeated sooner than later. However, Xemnas wasn't too keen on letting that happen. The dragon shot more beams and missiles at them before the fighter could get close enough to the other wing.

This time, along with the Nobody ships attacking them, the dragon also summoned more of the strange crystalline shapes to start firing even more beams at them. So now Riku had the job of shielding, firing the ship's own lasers, as well as steering the ship out of the way of attacks. Alexander had to say afterward that he was rather impressed; he was doing a pretty good job.

Riku fired another Megalaser at the wing, and it exploded. That was it, the dragon was going down. Riku slowed the fighter to a stop, and they watched as the dragon fell down to the valley floor of the world of nothingness. Sora, Riku, and Alex looked down at it. "I don't think I have to say this, but..." Alex muttered, "it's far from over."

The dragon righted itself on the valley floor, and a strange gray mist started billowing out from around it, as white threads of light started to wind their way around the area. The fighter wavered a little as the mist surrounded the trio and blocked off all sight for a moment.

* * *

Their sight cleared, and they saw the dragon sticking halfway out of a wall of buildings. The buildings from the dark city of The World That Never Was. Riku sped the craft over to the dragon's hollow head, and the three fighters jumped off of it. Sora, Riku, and Alex looked back as the small ship fell into the dark red vortex far behind them. Then they faced Xemnas's armored form and summoned their weapons. 

The trio charged at Xemnas, but the Nobody knocked them back with a swing of his spear. Alexander recovered first, excited by finally being able to contribute, and ran toward Xemnas again. Right before Alex reached him, Xemnas thrust his hand out and formed a wall of electricity in front of himself. Alexander recognized the attack and stopped his advance right before he touched it. When the barrier faded, Alex bashed Xemnas many times with the Lockshield.

"Hearts are power," Xemnas muttered, before thrusting his spear forward. A huge force came out of nowhere and knocked the three fighters far away from the dragon. Alexander panicked, and spun around, quickly finding out that he could jump continuously. Actually, he realized, it was just like when he had been fighting Jafar. He was gliding.

Alex suddenly noticed that the dragon had two halves of a shield on its "forearms." The dragon put the two jagged halves together and held up the huge whole shield in front of itself. "Nothingness..." Xemnas droned, "is eternal!" Buildings appeared out of the darkness and started flying toward the trio.

Several more buildings just appeared and floated there, stationary in the air. "Sora! Riku! Head for those! I have an idea!" Alex yelled. Sora and Riku acknowledged this and glided over to one of the stationary buildings. Alex glided near the dragon's shield, dodging a few red lasers that had shot out from behind the shield.

Riku landed on one of the buildings, and Sora floated behind it. With all of his might, Sora whacked the building with his Keyblade, sending the building and Riku flying over to the dragon's large shield. The building smacked into the shield, breaking it back into two parts, and bounced off.

The dragon tried to put the halves together. But Riku leaped up and slashed through the rebounding building, cutting it up into smaller blocks and sending it hurtling toward the shield. The large shield was thwarted again, and the dragon resumed its normal pose.

"Jump up high! Now!" Alex demanded, beginning to jump continuously himself. Sora and Riku were a little confused, but they started jumping anyway. Then Xemnas yelled, "Embrace... nothing!" Alexander turned toward his comrades and screamed, "Now drop! Drop!!"

The three fighters began to fall, and right in time, too. A few sets of the strange crystalline shapes appeared, firing beams of energy. They remained at the same elevation, which meant that they completely missed the trio. And since they had jumped up so high in the first place, the three sets of attacks were far above Xemnas's dragon's head, which meant that they didn't have to worry about dodging them on the approach. Alex had gone through the final battles many times; he knew what he was doing.

"Sora..." Xemnas muttered as the trio approached, "...are you sure you can _trust_ Riku?" Sora glared at the Nobody and charged without a word. Sora slashed at Xemnas many times with his Keyblade before Xemnas knocked him back.

"Riku..." Xemnas implored the other fighter, "...are you sure you're not _jealous_... of Sora?" Riku brandished his Way to the Dawn Keyblade menacingly, also attacking without a word. Riku's weapon was much sharper than Sora's blunt Keyblade, so his attacks were quite effective.

"Alexander..." Xemnas groaned wearily. Alexander pointed his Lockshield's blade at Xemnas. "Don't even start!" Alex shouted, running forward. Screaming in rage, he started bashing and slashing Xemnas repeatedly with his Lockshield, making sure to stretch out the chain attack as long as he could. For the finisher, Alex twirled his Lockshield around once and stabbed Xemnas straight in the chest.

Xemnas began to moan in pain, and a light started to spark from the Nobody's center. The light got brighter and brighter until it enveloped them all.

* * *

Alexander glanced around at the surroundings only for a moment. They were now in a mostly gray space, with weird white vortexes all around. The designs being sucked into those vortexes resembled the ones on the dark city's buildings. Below them was a lighter gray transparent disc on which this final battle would take place. But Alexander ignored these for the most part; he had seen them before. He glared at Xemnas, who was a few yards in front of the trio. The Nobody was wearing a light cloak, with a black flame design on it. 

"Heroes from the realm of light..." he intoned. "I will not allow it to end this way – not yet. If light and darkness are eternal, then surely we nothings must be the same... Eternal!"

Alexander sighed and shook his head. Riku only nodded. "You're right. Light and darkness are eternal. _Nothing_ probably goes on forever too. But guess what, Xemnas?"

Sora brandished his Keyblade. "That doesn't mean **you're** eternal!" There was a pause. Xemnas chuckled evilly, making Alex's spine shiver. "No more eternal than that radiance of yours..." Xemnas calmly retorted, flexing a gloved hand. Xemnas hung his head and stood there, slowly rising into the air as the trio got into a fighting stance.

"Anger and hate..." Xemnas muttered, his hands sparking with energy, "are supreme." Xemnas suddenly warped, and Alex found himself being held up by the collar. "You shall go together!" Xemnas announced, throwing Alexander up into the air with some Nothing Threads. Sora and Riku jumped up after him.

Alex barely recovered in time to see Xemnas speeding toward him with a laser sword, and some Nothing Threads following behind. Alexander suddenly remembered what he needed to do, and he used the Reversal technique around the Nothing Threads, dodging Xemnas's attack. Sora and Riku also used Reversal. The next minute or so went on like that, with Xemnas constantly attacking with his swords and Nothing Threads, and the trio using the good ol' Reversal technique to dodge him. It worked, for the most part.

Alex began to drop down to the ground. Xemnas suddenly warped in front of him and slashed across his guard, then spun around and kicked the Lockshield out of Alexander's hand. Alex went flying to the ground. Sora, who was also falling toward them, grabbed the Lockshield in midair and threw it back at Alexander, who caught it just in time. Alex blocked one of Xemnas's laser swords with his weapon. Sora tried to slash at Xemnas, but his Keyblade met Xemnas's other sword. After a few moments of struggle, the three fighters separated and landed back on the ground.

"Bind!" Xemnas roared, stretching his hand forth. A plethora of Nothing Threads shot at Alexander and hit him hard. Sora and Riku got a few hits in before Xemnas warped again. Xemnas appeared near Alex and started spinning around with his laser swords. Alexander quickly used a Reflega spell to defend himself against the onslaught. Xemnas's barrage soon stopped, and Alex dropped the barrier. Unfortunately, Xemnas warped right before the Reflega spell could shoot back the attack.

Xemnas teleported again, brandishing his laser swords once more. The trio closed in on him and started attacking. After a few moments of taking damage, Xemnas yelled, "Begone!" and summoned a large sphere of electricity in front of himself, knocking the three fighters back. Alex used Curaga quickly when he recovered.

Xemnas appeared next to Alexander again and shouted, "Bind!" Alex knew what was coming this time and dodged the Nothing Threads. Alexander started to get a combo on Xemnas, and Sora and Riku got another few hits in as well. Xemnas suddenly started flying around Alexander, leaving small laser shots hanging in midair where he flew by. Soon, Alex had a ring of lasers around him. Alex knew what attack was coming, and prepared to use Reflega again. Unfortunately, he remembered too late that his magic power was still recovering from the Curaga spell, and he was hit by the sudden laser strikes.

"Here!" Xemnas roared, flying by and leaving three lasers hanging in the air. Alex blocked a couple of them, but one impacted his side and exploded, hurting him quite a bit. Xemnas then warped to a spot a few feet above the ground behind Alex. "Why don't you disappear?" he asked sarcastically. Xemnas started firing a barrage of laser strikes from his hand, and Alex couldn't even run away. Xemnas warped away again after the attack.

"Alexander!" Riku shouted, tossing a Hi-Potion over to Alex. Alexander snatched the Hi-Potion out of the air and grinned. Riku had certainly been prepared. Alex downed the potion, feeling his health return to his body. He brandished his shield once more.

Alex suddenly saw Xemnas up in front of him. Before he knew it, he felt electricity coursing through his body, and he vaguely felt being lifted up into the air. He saw Riku try to rescue him from this attack, but Xemnas knocked him away. Riku flipped back and joined Sora. "Alex!" he heard Riku shout, hearing the Way to the Dawn being brandished again. His senses were being clouded as the strength was being sucked out of him.

An eternity passed for Alexander, but then he saw Riku jump up and try to stab Xemnas with his Keyblade. Xemnas moved his head to the side, dodging the strike. With a shout, Riku suddenly pressed his hand up against Xemnas's, using his power to cut the Nobody's attack short. Alex fell down from the suspension. Riku hit Xemnas a couple of times in a combo, then grabbed the Nobody's arm, spun around and sent him hurtling into the air. "Is that all you got?" Riku teased, joining Alex and Sora. Alexander used Curaga again in the short time he had.

Xemnas recovered, and glared at the trio. His hands began to spark with electricity. "You are such fools..." he declared, slamming his hands together. A darkness appeared between them, which spread around their surroundings and completely enveloped them all. "Watch out!" Alex yelled, as hundreds of stationary lasers surrounded him, Sora, and Riku in a large sphere of red energy. This was the most complicated part. Accompanied by an evil laugh, Xemnas's body convulsed inward, motioning for the attack to commence.

The lasers started firing at an incredibly rapid rate. Alexander, Sora, and Riku started a flurry of counterattacks, deflecting each laser as it shot at them. Alex was actually familiar with this kind of defense, having been able to block Sephiroth's flash step flurry. But this was lasting for a much, much longer period of time than that particular attack. For a good solid thirty seconds (though Alex could've sworn it was a lot longer), they reflected each and every one of the lasers. A light flashed around them as they neared the end, and they found themselves back at their arena.

The trio was breathing heavily. That had been a tough trial. But Xemnas wasn't willing to show any mercy. Xemnas swung his laser sword at the kneeling Riku, knocking the boy back. "Riku!" Sora shouted, right before Xemnas held his laser sword against his neck. Xemnas pulled the sword back and started to swing, but Riku had charged forward again to deflect the attack. Xemnas started to swing the other sword. In the split second they had, Riku pushed Sora out of the way. The second laser sword caught Riku in the back, sending the fighter to the ground with a cry.

Alexander just then recovered. He saw their predicament, and cursed himself for not being able to help. But he could hardly move; his strength was drained. And his magic power was still charging up. An idea came to him, and he realized it was their only option. Alex stumbled forward and glanced at Riku and Sora. "Light!" he screamed.

Light shot out from Alexander's body, pushing Xemnas back a little. When the light faded, Alexander felt an incredible sensation overwhelm his body. The full power of light was within him, even keeping him off the ground. Two Lockshields were behind his back, ready to attack at Alex's slightest whim. When he confirmed that his garments had changed to a bright white, he knew that this was his Final Form.

Alexander charged forward and slammed both Lockshields into Xemnas's gut. Only slightly moving his arms, he sent the Lockshields into a barrage of strikes, hitting Xemnas five or six times. Alex swung one Lockshield down of Xemnas's head, then sent the other into an uppercut, knocking Xemnas into the air. Alexander then spun both Lockshields a bit, poised for his attack, then swung both Lockshields' blades into the Nobody's back, sending Xemnas even higher into the air.

Alex flipped back and looked up at Xemnas, who was nearing the peak of his rise. He knew that Sora and Riku were within him, increasing his power with their hearts' connections. Alex pointed both Lockshields at Xemnas, one over the other. Two halos formed themselves around the weapons. "Goodbye, Nobody!" Alex screamed. The halos closed in on the weapons, and a large beam shot at Xemnas. The beam caught Xemnas straight in the chest, piercing his body all the way through.

Xemnas fell to the ground, and slowly tried to stand up. "Cursed... Lockshield..." Alexander reverted, letting Sora and Riku appear next to him. A white vortex appeared behind Xemnas, sucking little bits and pieces of his existence in as Xemnas's body started to fade away. With a great display of light, darkness, and nothingness, Xemnas disappeared into the empty void.

Alexander kept a steady gaze at where Xemnas had been. The last faithful member of Organization XIII had been obliterated. Sora cheered, lowering his Keyblade. "We did it!"

Alex looked around as Dusks began to appear around the trio. Riku glared at the Nobodies as they started to mass in the hundreds. "I wouldn't be too sure of that," he muttered, getting into his fighting stance along with Alex and Sora.

Alexander groaned as the first few Dusks closed in. Sure, they had defeated Xemnas. But it wasn't over. Then again, would it ever be?

* * *

**Disclaimer: I only own Alexander, Joumae, and the Lockshield. Every other element of this story belongs to their respective owners. Namely Square-Enix and Disney.**


	44. Dearly Beloved

Chapter 43  
Dearly Beloved

The last few Dusks exploded into nothingness. Sora and Alexander lowered their weapons, breathing heavily. It had been something akin to the 1000 Heartless battle, except with Dusks (which, by the by, were much more deadly).

Riku dropped to his knees, the sound caused by that immediately drawing Sora's attention. "Sora..." Riku mumbled. "I can't..."

"Don't say another word!" Sora scolded him, cutting him off. "It's not over. It's just not." Sora grabbed Riku's arm and slung it over his shoulder, holding his friend up. Riku looked at his friend with an incredulous look. "How can you say that?" he demanded. "Even if we could go on... look where we are."

"Aw, c'mon, Riku," Sora chided him calmly, trying to cheer him up. "You've been hanging out in darkness too long. You gotta try and think positive!"

Alex couldn't help but chuckle. "How true, huh?" Riku took this all in for a moment, then said, "Sora? You lead." Sora nodded. "Got it," he replied, helping Riku walk with him, with Alexander tagging close behind.

They walked for a few minutes in silence. Then Riku broke it by saying, "You know... I always figured I was better at stuff than you." Sora rolled his eyes. "Really?" he mumbled to himself with a chuckle. Riku glanced over at him. "Are you mad?"

Sora shook his head. "No. I kinda always thought you were better at everything, too." He looked back at Alexander, and asked, "Hey, Alex. You saw a bit of the islands in the first game, right? Who did you think was better?"

Alex chuckled. "Aw, you had to ask, didn't you?" He thought about it. "Well, I have to admit that when I played as you, Sora, when you sparred against Riku, I had a bit of a tough time. Never won the race, either," he added.

Sora nodded, and looked ahead. The Keyblade Master seemed to notice something. "Guys, look. What's that light?" There was a small point of light a few yards away, which was getting closer and larger. Alex, Sora, and Riku walked right into it.

* * *

They appeared at a dark beach, with oddly shaped rocks around them scattered up and down the shoreline, and the moon in the distance barely above the horizon of the water. Sora stopped walking. Riku looked up. "End of the road?" he asked. Sora nodded. "Yep." 

Alexander sighed, feeling the slight breeze coming in from the dark ocean. That was the only thing he ever really enjoyed about a beach. But this place felt quite a bit more peaceful than any beach he'd been at in the real world. He looked back at his comrades. Riku said, "Put me down. I can walk." Sora let go of Riku's arm, and Riku stood up straight, stumbling only once. Riku shrugged, and Sora nodded with a smile.

Sora walked over to the water's edge, where the small waves just barely engulfed the bottom of his shoes. "You know..." he admitted, "maybe the darkness has gotten to me, too." They heard a sound behind them, and Sora looked back to see Riku face first on the ground. "Riku!" Sora shouted, running over to him. Alexander also walked over to them.

Riku slowly got up to his hands and knees. "This world is perfect for me. If this is what the world really is... just this, then maybe I should fade back into darkness."

"Riku..." Alex mumbled. "If the world is made of light and darkness..." Riku stated. "We'll be the darkness." Sora slowly nodded, and sat down beside Riku. "Yeah," Sora agreed. "The other side... the realm of light is safe now. Kairi, the King, and the others are there."

Riku nodded. "That's what I mean." He glanced over at Alexander. "Hey, Alex... Could you help me? I want to get down to the water." Alex hesitantly nodded, and knelt down, slinging Riku's other arm over his shoulder, and slowly walking Riku to the water's edge. Riku sighed. "At least the waves sound the same."

* * *

Riku, and Sora sat down, letting the water soak their shoes. Alexander had left to pace up and down the beach. Eventually, Riku broke the silence again. "What I said back there... about thinking that I was better at stuff than you..." 

Sora mumbled an acknowledgment. "To tell you the truth, Sora..." Riku continued, "I was jealous of you." Sora was a little surprised. "What for?" Sora wondered aloud.

"I wished I could live life the way you do," Riku explained. "Just following my heart." Sora shrugged, a little doubtful of that. "Yeah, well, I've got my share of problems, too."

"Like what?" Riku wondered. "Like..." Sora replied, "wanting to be like you." Riku chuckled. "Well, there is one advantage to being me... Something you could never imitate."

Sora was curious. "Really? What's that?" Riku smiled. "Having you for a friend." Sora was surprised, but he smiled back. "Then I guess..." Sora replied. "I'm okay the way I am. I've got something you could never imitate, too."

* * *

Alexander walked back over to Sora and Riku and sat down next to them. "How was your walk?" Riku asked. Alex shrugged. "Oh, it was fine. The best relaxation I've gotten in days, really." That remark got a chuckle from the others. 

"It's awfully quiet here," Alex continued. "I was able to think to myself. And Joumae." He chuckled, and sighed. "Y'know, the game's pretty much over. Kingdom Hearts II has been beaten." He stared at the moon's light reflecting off the water. "I came here to be an Interference in the game. But now that the game's over, what do I do?"

"Well..." Sora began, "you could always just hang out with us." Alexander glanced over to them, more than a little surprised. "Really? I mean... Do you guys really consider me a friend?"

"Why not?" Riku mused. "You've helped us get this far." Alex shook his head. "Yeah, but... To be honest, you could've probably gotten this far on your own. I mean, I really didn't change much in the game at all. In fact," he added, glancing at his hands, "it's more like me who has changed. I'm not the person I was when I had first started being an Interference."

"I think it's a good thing you decided not to change too much," Sora admitted. Riku nodded. "Yeah, you didn't skew the series of events completely out of order. Frankly, that's much better than someone who drastically changes everything. And we have _you_ to thank for that."

"Yeah, and isn't it you in the first place who made this universe a reality?" Sora added. Alexander shook his head at that. "Not really." Sora was surprised. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"I mean..." Alex began to explain, looking for the right words. "Well, if there's one thing I've learned on this adventure, it's that hearts are powerful things. But the connections between hearts are even more powerful. Now, it was explained that when my heart _connected_ with this game, it became real." He paused for effect, to make his point. "But what did my heart connect with? It couldn't possibly have connected if there wasn't something there already."

This statement rather confused all of them, even Alex. But their conversation was cut short by Alex letting out a small gasp. The Interference looked down at his feet, and found a glass bottle sitting there. There was a rolled up parchment inside. With a smirk, Alex picked up the bottle, pulled out the cork, and dumped the contents into his hand. Without rolling it out, he handed it over to Sora. "This is for you."

Sora unrolled the parchment and began to read. "Thinking of you, wherever you are." He read the rest silently, but Alexander knew what it said: _We pray for our sorrows to end, and hope that our hearts will blend. Now I will step forward to realize this wish. And who knows: Maybe starting a new journey may not be so hard, or maybe it has already begun. There are many worlds, but they share the same sky – one sky, one destiny._

Sora looked up from the parchment, and saw a bright light appearing before them. It shone like a door opening in front of them. "Light," Riku stated. "The door to light," Sora mumbled. Alex chuckled, standing up. "Ironic, really. The door to light could only be opened in the realm of darkness..."

Sora stood up and held his hand out to Riku. "We'll go together." Riku paused, then nodded. "Yeah." He took Sora's hand and pulled himself up. Together, the three of them faced the door to light, and started walking into it.

* * *

Three blue comets shot down from the sunset skies, their flame dissipating when they hit the water. The three boys surfaced after a few moments. Alex sighed, a little glad that he'd taken swimming lessons at Atlantica. The three of them looked around, trying to get a bearing on where they were now. 

"Sora! Riku! Alex!" a girl's voice yelled. Everyone looked toward the source of the voice. It was Kairi, standing on the beach of their island, waving at them. Destiny Islands, the place where it all began.

Sora cried out excitedly and led the way as the three of them swam toward the shore. They were actually only a few feet away from shallow water, so it was a short swim. Sora stumbled onto his feet and started running toward Kairi. But their moment was short-lived as Mickey, Donald, and Goofy ran out into the water to meet them. Donald and Goofy were the most excited, and they literally tackling Sora, their combined weight sending them splashing onto the shallow shore.

Mickey ran over to Riku and jumped onto him, giggling ecstatically. They were all glad that it was finally over. Alex looked up and saw Axel waving half-heartedly at them from further down the beach. Alexander grinned and waved back.

Alex glanced at Sora, Donald, and Goofy, who were in a rather large hug. Donald and Goofy broke free so that Sora could look up at Kairi. Sora reached into his back pocket and pulled out the Oathkeeper charm that Kairi had lent him long, long ago. Sora and Kairi smiled at each other, and for a moment Alex could've sworn that he saw Roxas and Naminè smiling too.

"W-We're back," Sora managed to stutter, still half-crazed from the excitement. Kairi smiled and reached out to him. "You're home." Sora grinned and took Kairi's hand, the good luck charm in both of their grasps.

Suddenly, the charm began to shine a brilliant twilight, and it floated a little bit into the air. Alexander chuckled as they all gathered around it. "It looks like there's just cleanup left to do, huh?" Sora smiled and pulled out his Keyblade. Alex summoned his Lockshield.

All the others disappeared. A light flashed from the Lockshield and Keyblade, and the shining images of the Heartless emblem and the crown-shaped symbol appeared beneath their feet, overlapping. A strange wind began to blow against them while the island surroundings were blocked off by more light. Alex looked around at the starry expanse, savoring the moment.

The charm shot out two beams up into the air, which formed the Dark Corridor above Alex and the shining gate above Sora. Alex looked into his own, and saw the mass of Shadows inching toward the opening. Alexander and Sora twirled their weapons around and pointed them at their respective gates. Two halos surrounded their weapons for a moment, then they closed in and shot out beams at their gates. When Alex's collided with the Dark Corridor, it formed a dark green wall in front of it. When Sora's entered the gate, light filled the gate and flooded into their starry space. The light faded, and they found themselves back at Destiny Islands at last.

* * *

The party walked into the secret place of the island, looking at the door on the other side of the cave. Sora glanced at Alex. "Do you want to do the honors?" he asked. Alexander smiled and nodded. He pointed his Lockshield at the door, and the world's Keyhole appeared on it. A beam shot out from the center of Alexander's Lockshield, and collided with the world's Keyhole. There was a loud clicking sound, and the Keyhole disappeared from the door completely. 

"Well, I suppose we might as well get back to our respective worlds," Mickey supposed. Alexander nodded. Axel shook a finger at the mouse. "Wait a minute. What about me? I don't exactly have a place to go right now."

Alex smiled. "Don't worry, I've already thought of that. I think that the Hollow... Er, I mean, Radiant Garden Restoration Committee wouldn't mind some help, would they? I'm sure that they'll understand."

Axel seemed to consider this. "Doesn't sound like a bad idea. I guess we do owe them for causing all that trouble with the thousand Heartless and everything..."

Alexander nodded, and turned to face them all. "Well, the adventure's officially over. And until the next game comes out, I have no idea what'll happen next. Joumae tells me that now that the game's over, I can use this," he said, hefted up the Lockshield, "to return to my own world. So I'm going to return to Twilight Town and do just that."

He paused. "It's been great. Don't worry, this isn't goodbye. I plan on seeing you all again as soon as possible." Joumae interrupted his thoughts by saying, **_Yeah, considering how bad your luck seems to be, you might as well plan on it._ **Sora, Riku, Kairi, and even Alex couldn't help but chuckle, leaving the others confused.

* * *

Alexander dropped off Mickey, Donald, and Goofy at Disney Castle, and dropped off Axel at Radiant Garden. With the gate to Destiny Islands open, he knew that he could always visit by gummi ship if he ever needed to see Sora, Riku, or Kairi. But he shook those thoughts out of his head and disembarked at Twilight Town. He had a promise to fulfill. 

Alex walked into the back alley, and saw the curtain hanging over the door to the usual spot. And judging by the sounds coming from inside, it seemed like his friends were inside. Alex lifted the curtain and stepped inside.

Hayner noticed him first. But, not wanting to seem surprised, he said, "So, it looks like Organization XIII couldn't compete with you guys, huh?" Alex grinned back at him. "Nope. Never stood a chance."

"Welcome back, Alex," Olette greeted him. "Thanks, Olette," Alex replied. Pence also approached him, asked, "So... is the game finished now?"

Alex nodded. "Yes. The game's definitely done now. It's all over. And I'm going to return to my own world now."

Hayner seemed a little surprised now. "What? You're leaving? Why?" Alex sighed. "Well, it's been fun, for sure. But I've been gone from home for a long time. And I really think I should return now."

"Oh, don't worry," Alex assured them. "This isn't goodbye. After all, I think I'll be able to drop by and visit any time I want. I have my own apartment here, you know. I'll need to drop by to keep my dual membership," he added with a grin.

His friends nodded, smiling back at him. "So how are you going to do it?" Pence wondered. Alex's grin widened. "Watch." He walked out of the usual spot into the back alley, and Hayner, Pence, and Olette followed.

Alex faced an empty section of the alley, and pointed his Lockshield at the space in front of him. "Unlock!" he shouted. A beam shot out from his Lockshield, and flew forward a couple feet. Suddenly, it stopped and stabbed into the space, creating a ripple in the air. Slowly, a dark, circular portal appeared in front of Alex.

The Interference looked back at his friends, who were somewhat impressed. "Well, see ya later, Alexander," Hayner stated. Alexander nodded, and stepped back toward the portal. "See ya later, Hayner, Pence, Olette." And with that, he turned around and dashed head-first into the portal.

* * *

"Ugh..." Alexander muttered as he lifted himself off of the couch. Wait, couch? The boy looked around, and saw that he was back in his own living room. His PS2 controller was still in his hand, and the usual ending credits were rolling by on the screen. 

Alex wasn't reassured yet, so he got up off the couch and looked himself over. He was still wearing his garments from the game. He placed a gloved hand on his head. His hair was still naturally spiky.

Alexander ran toward the front door of his apartment and swung it open. A dull, dark, early summer morning in the suburbs greeted him. Alex sighed. "It's good to be home."

Perhaps a synopsis of Alexander's home life would be sufficient. The boy's full name was Alexander Ephiram Karsath, and he lived in a second-story apartment in Portland, Oregon. He lived with his sister, Erica, and his mother. His parents were divorced, though the father was still involved and came to visit twice a week. His mother worked the graveyard shift at the bank, so she didn't get home until the early morning (which is why Alex was playing while the sun wasn't quite up yet). It was summer vacation right now. Alexander was born on August 15th, so...

Wait, what day was it today? Alex ran into the small kitchen and looked at the calendar. They crossed off every past day, but there were no marks on the August calendar he was looking at. Today was August 1st. Exactly two weeks before his birthday.**It was the same day as when he'd started the new game of Kingdom Hearts II.**

Alex was dumbstruck. Absolutely no time had passed in this world. A quick glance at the clock in the dining room quickly confirmed that. _Joumae, what the heck is going on?_

_**Universal failsafe law,**_ Joumae replied coolly. Alex grimaced; he still had Joumae in this world. **_Hey, don't give me the resigned tone of voice again. Anyway, time completely stops in the Interference's world when he enters the game world. That way, there's no confusion if the Interference returns. Oh, and to answer your next question, time will now be stopped in the Kingdom Hearts II universe so that _this_ world's time can catch up._**

Alexander was dumbstruck again. "Time has completely stopped in Sora's world now?!" **_Yep. But, really, that's good for you. You don't have to worry about what's going on in their world for another eleven days. Let's get some rest; we need a vacation._**

Alex was still confused, but he had to admit that his dark counterpart was right. All that adventuring was tiring, and now he could get some uninterrupted sleep. In fact, he was feeling tired already. The real world's laws didn't condone a lack of sleep, unlike the Kingdom Hearts II universe. And his body was beginning to realize the difference.

Alex turned off the PS2 and stumbled into his bedroom. He barely managed to take off his boots and his jacket before he plopped on the bed and pulled the covers over himself. His bed felt really, _really_ comfortable right now. It wasn't long before he felt the fatigue take over his body and send him into a deep sleep. But he wasn't really worried; he was in his own bedroom now. And this place was his sanctuary.

**The Interference**

**_END_  
**


	45. Conclusion Specials

**Conclusion Special #1:  
Author's Notes**

And **that's** how a self-insertion fan fiction is done, baby! Woohoo!

Ah, sorry, Newbie-Spud here. I just feel like celebrating for finally finishing this story, The Interference. So I thought I'd give you guys a couple treats. Two of 'em, actually. First up, we'll have another edition of the Author's Notes. The Halfway Special seemed to work pretty well, so I'd like to do it again. With different content, of course. Remember, the things I say about my story are _my_ opinions, so they don't necessarily have to be yours.

* * *

Completion

The fact that this story's finished it, really, a surprise even to me. I mean, when I had started writing this fanfic, I was honestly hoping to finish it at some point. But I didn't want to let myself down, so I didn't hold out too much hope for that. But now that it's actually finished... Wow.

And honestly, I'm incredibly impressed I was able to finish it before the New Year. (Although it had become my deadline by the time I was writing Deep Drive.) I looked back at the publish date, and I saw that it was mid-June. It's the end of December now. So that means this story took little over five months to write. For a story bordering 150 thousand words, I think that's pretty good. Then again, it's my first story, so I'm no judge.

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Alexander's Journey

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. A lot of this was improvised. That is, I didn't really plan for what would happen to Alexander during the story. I just placed him in the story of the game and sent him through to see what would happen. Soon, it got to the point where the story was starting to write itself.

That's what I think one of my achievements is. I've created an OC that has actually developed over the course of the story. I looked over the story, and I think there are four major stages of Alexander's development.

The first six Days at Twilight Town, Alex is just learning about his situation and getting used to the fighting environment of being in the game. Then comes chapter seven, A New Day, where Sora comes in. After that, Alexander starts to kinda fall under the trio's shadow, only speaking up to give advice from time to time and to introduce himself to the other Disney characters.

So it continues, until chapter nineteen, Sinister Sundown, where Alex takes the initiative and makes a huge Interference. He prevents Kairi from getting kidnapped (until later), and starts to find his place among his friends.

He slowly starts becoming more assertive and responsible, until chapter thirty-seven, One-Winged Angel. I don't even think I have to explain what happens. But the battle with Sephiroth seems to really do the trick for Alex, and he learns to take the lead and actively participate.

By the time that fourth stage hit, Alexander's character had been fully fleshed out, and I was no longer in control. He was writing himself.

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A Shout Out to Readers and Reviewers

I really have to thank all of those that read the story and gave positive reviews and constructive criticism. Without you all, I never would have made it this far. I don't think it's quite understood what a powerful thing it is for a writer to be able to have people review his story while it's still a work-in-progress. I know there are also some readers who haven't reviewed yet. I thank you all, anyway.

Positive reviews keep a writer's morale up and inspires him/her to keep writing, while honest criticism lets the writer know where his problems are and help the story become even better as it goes along. It's really quite incredible, and I have you all to thank for giving me reviews. Thank you all... again.

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The Biggest Interference

Oh, yes, I almost forgot... I saved Axel. Yes, yes, I know I was catering to the fangirls. Stop glomping me already!

Ah, but I kid. We've all thought of it, but I was crazy enough to do it! And why not, really? Axel's a pretty cool guy, he was just working with the wrong people. I also gave him back his heart, 'cause what good is having a Nobody for a friend, who can't feel the same way about his own friends?

It's funny that I've never seen this kind of thing done before. In fact, I think mine is the first story that novelized the game Kingdom Hearts II to any degree, or at least managed to make it that far. (If I'm wrong, please... **please** let me know if there's another story like that. I haven't found one.)

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"The Interference" Trivia

Here's some fun little pieces of trivia for you all to enjoy. Um, er... Enjoy!

- The chapter titles (except for chapters 1-7 as well as the Specials) are all the titles of respective tracks on the Kingdom Hearts II original soundtrack. They are the songs that usually correspond with either the situation or the world in question. (I say 'usually' because Old Friends, Old Rivals is actually the battle theme for Timeless River! D'oh!)

- I learned new things about the game while I was writing this fanfic. The reaction command progression in the first duel with Xemnas was actually pointed out to me by a reader. A round of applause for Warp Ligia Obscura!

- I had originally written the first six chapters with Alexander being with Roxas during the six Days at the alternate Twilight Town. But it felt weak and I deleted the document, starting all over again. Now I feel grateful that I did that. This version sounds much more original.

- Alexander's experience with the game Kingdom Hearts II reflects my own. As I said before, I was playing the game at the same time I was writing the fan fiction, so that I could get a fresh memory. It was actually my third time through! I have one save on Beginner mode (where I beat Sephiroth and the Underdrome Tourneys), another on Proud mode (so that I could see the secret ending), and this third one on Standard.

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Is It Over?

Over? What? Are you kidding me!? No, of course not! For one thing, I'll most likely need to go back through the story and edit any typos I might have failed to fix. I can already see a few as I'm writing this chapter...

But beyond the editing? Well... Alright, I guess I'll give you a sneak peek of the... _sequel_ I'm writing! Ha, you've all been asking me to write one, but I've been already planning one behind your backs for a long time! And now I'm able to write it!!

Ahem. I've made this preview much like the secret endings of the Kingdom Hearts games. Get ready for **The Interference II: Curse of the Crimson Elixir**! Look for it in the Crossovers section!

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**Conclusion Special #2:  
Secret Ending**

Alexander tossed and turned in his bed. It was the dead of night, and his hometown was peaceful for the most part, save for the usual business downtown. But inside his mind, strange images were beginning to haunt him.

_There was a forest clearing, a short distance away from a destroyed town. A church was in the background, and they stood in the middle of a graveyard of sorts. In the clearing stood several figures. Their faced couldn't be seen, but two of them stood side by side on one side, staring at the other._

_One of them was a short boy with long blond hair in a braid, wearing a red cloak. The one standing next to the boy was a taller figure in heavy light blue armor. The figure standing across from them had a dark outfit on, and silver hair that partially covered up one eye._

_They seemed to exchange a few remarks, but nothing could be heard. Suddenly, the blond boy clapped his hands, and placed a hand on his right arm. In a flash of blue sparks, a blade appeared on his arm. The boy charged forward._

_The dark figure also clapped his hands and placed them on the ground. With purple sparks flashing, the grass beneath him started to grow at a massive rate and hardened into some kind of sharp metal, heading straight for the blond boy._

Alex's body suddenly convulsed, his eyes still clamped shut. Some words began to go through his mind._"The Grand Arcanum of Lebis..."_

_The blond boy leaped high over the overgrowth, and landed next to the dark figure. He stabbed his arm-blade at the dark figure, but the figure held out his hand out palm-first. The blade's tip impacted the skin, but was halted like it had struck a solid wall._

_"Without a circle, eh?"_More words and phrases flooded his senses, and Alex could've sworn they were familiar. The images faded, and now just words began to appear. They were invading his mind by the thousands, but he could only discern the contents of a small portion. None of them were connected; it was just random phrases plucked out of the air. But they felt real...

_"Golems..." "Perhaps it's an exaggeration of sibling rivalry..." "You should know better than to Interfere to this degree." "Why did you turn against me!?" "You'll need help. I know I did." "The remaining five..." "Perhaps I'd be better off without you." "...only a fraction of the true burden you bear." "The force that tries to protect is much stronger than the one that tries to take away." "I'd hate her, but that would risk letting my darkness get stronger."_

Suddenly, one phrase shone out from the obscurity, forcing all the others to disappear as it sounded out as clear as a bell. _"We're waiting and watching, Alexander, for you to make your next Interference..."_

"AUGH!" Alex screamed, shooting straight up out of his bed and sitting up. When the panic passed, he realized that it was still the middle of a night. He groaned and rubbed the side of his head.

_**Just what the heck was that!?**_ Joumae demanded. Alex shook his head. "Just a stupid dream... Well, more like a nightmare." He looked at his digital clock on the opposite side of the room, shining 11:54 in bright red digits. It was six minutes until the turn of the date. Six minutes until August 15th, his fifteenth birthday. Alex sighed. "Good grief," he muttered, plopping his head back down onto his pillow.


End file.
